More than Minding Oneself: Educating Social Care Workers to Identify and Combat the Causes of Moral Distress

In this paper, we examine what we believe to be a neglected cause of social care worker burnout – that of moral distress. More specifically, we argue that the primary cause of moral distress is inherent in the social care sector in the Republic of Ireland. It comes from the tension between the legislative and regulative framework guiding the sector, and the normative values that guide the individual practitioner. The legislation of the Irish state relies heavily on the liberal conception of the individual as rational and autonomous and endowed with rights. On the other hand, social care practice and social care workers operate out of the normative values of empathy and respect, and on the recognition of people as relational beings. These two sets of values end up clashing in the workplace, as managers attempt to implement the legislative and regulatory requirements of the state, while social care workers strive to provide non-clinical and relational care within such a setting. We argue that this may not just contribute to the issue of occupational distress but that it is a direct cause in and of itself; an issue which social care organizations, managers, practitioners and students need to become aware of and mediate in the provision of social care.