Poetry for Wellbeing

SASW has joined with project partners, the Scottish Poetry Library, and social work academics and poetry enthusiasts Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh and Dr Ariane Critchley to deliver a project which will promote the use of poetry to enhance wellbeing for social workers in adult services. SASW Professional Officer, Sarah McMillan writes in this blog the intentions behind the programme and how it will be delivered.

We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a grant from the Workforce Wellbeing Fund for Adult Social Work and Social Care, which was announced by the Scottish Government earlier this year, to promote the wellbeing of staff in adult social work and social care.

We all know about the pressures social workers are under. High caseloads and scarce resources are just some of the sources of daily pressure. SASW continues to campaign for improvements to working conditions and better recognition for the workforce. Earlier this year we published a briefing paper collating responses from social workers in Scotland and across the rest of the UK on working conditions and wellbeing, which highlights the stress people experience, with overall stress scores for those in Scotland higher than in the rest of the UK. Last month, as a result of our engagement with MSPs on the concerning findings in the Setting the Bar report, several parliamentary questions were lodged seeking clarification from Ministers on what actions will be taken to address working conditions for social workers. You can read the questions and responses here.

The mental, emotional, and physical energy social workers pour into building relationships which allows them to provide the support people need has always been demanding.  The current challenges of the post-pandemic world and soaring cost of living are not making it any easier. Now more than ever we need to support our social work workforce so that they continue to have the strength to be there for those who need them. Whilst SASW is focussed on achieving improved working conditions for social workers, there is also a role for us in supporting social workers to develop strategies to process the emotional impact of the complex work they do. SASW has long promoted the power of connection to enhance wellbeing, and we support this through our communities of practice and practitioner forums. This new project brings an opportunity to harness creativity as a means of processing experiences and emotions.

The project will deliver a series of six workshops for social workers in adult services in which they can explore poetry as an aid to reflection, self-care, and rejuvenation. The workshops will be facilitated by project partners and guest poets. Participants will be able to share approaches to wellbeing from their respective workplaces and will be encouraged to take their learning into their own teams and local practice communities to foster creative workplace approaches to wellbeing.

The project will result in the development of a set of materials which can be used in the future by social workers to run their own poetry wellbeing groups.

There is a growing evidence base which links poetry to wellbeing. It can help in the development of empathy and compassion, including self-compassion, which can be a strategy to improve mental well-being. Poetry can also be a tool for reflection and discussion, as well as a source of emotional support. For these reasons poetry is increasingly being used as a tool in social work education. The University of Edinburgh, for example, promotes the use of poetry in its Creative Social Work and the Arts course. This article, published in 2020 (Critchley, A. and Roesch-Marsh, A.) provides a helpful overview of the effectiveness of poetry as an aide to wellbeing.

This is not the first time SASW has dipped its toes into the world of poetry. In 2020 we received funding from Book Week Scotland which helped us host a webinar exploring Social Work Past, Present and Future, which featured guest poet and retired social worker Alistair Findlay, and two facilitated workshops which focused on how social workers can practice writing and reading poetry to enhance reflection, self-compassion, and creativity. We have a long-standing relationship with Jo McFarlane, an Edinburgh-based poet, activist and author, whose writing offers powerful reflections on her experiences of mental health and trauma.

Social workers face high levels of stress. This is nothing new. However, we are always looking for new ways to address the impact. One of these is the use of poetry. Whether you’re new to reading and writing poetry, or you have already experienced its positive effect, or are just curious to find out more, look out for details of the workshops coming soon. They will be open initially to social workers in adult services, but we envisage that once the toolkit is developed it can be offered as a resource to all social workers and those working in social care.

To find out more contact sarah.mcmillan@basw.co.uk