A Case Study Of Social Worker On Burnout Among Caregivers In Rural Nursing Homes

With the improvement of healthcare technology and the increase of life expectancy,the number of elderly people in China is also growing,and it is becoming more and more urgent to solve the problem of ageing population.The traditional model of family-based care can hardly meet the growing needs of the society,and institutional care is slowly becoming the choice of more and more elderly people.However,while there is much focus on institutional care,little attention has been paid to the caregivers who are the mainstay of the services provided to the elderly in the institutions,affecting their quality of service and physical and mental health.However,the lack of social support has led to burnout among caregivers,which not only affects their own physical and mental health,but also affects the quality of services for the elderly in the institutions and the development of the institutions.In this study,W caregiver in J township nursing homes in X county were selected as the respondents and burnout of W caregivers was measured by the Burnout Scale to understand the degree of burnout of W caregivers.Through participant observation and interviews,the author gained an in-depth understanding of the problems encountered by the W caregivers in their actual work and life,and found that their burnout was mainly manifested by a loss of motivation towards their work and a lack of enthusiasm for the elderly.Through the analysis of the collected data,it was found that the burnout of the W caregivers was mainly caused by a weak social support network,specifically due to a lack of support from their family members,the head of the institution,the elderly and colleagues.Based on the causes of the service users’ burnout,the author used the social support theory as the main factor in the intervention process,while adding the enrichment theory.Through four interviews and activities,the informal support network represented by family,colleagues and the elderly and the formal social support network represented by the institution were reconstructed to help improve the social support network of service user W.Eventually,the service users’ burnout was alleviated.This study shows that casework interventions to reconstruct clients’ social support networks can effectively help clients improve their burnout caused by their lack of social support networks,increase caregivers’ motivation,and enhance their enthusiasm for the elderly,thus facilitating the provision of better and more secure care services in elderly care institutions.