Barnett, J. E., & Homany, G. (2022).
Practice Innovations, 7(4), 313–326.
Abstract
Clinical work as a mental health practitioner can be very rewarding and gratifying. It also may be stressful, difficult, and emotionally demanding for the clinician. Failure to sufficiently attend to one’s own functioning through appropriate ongoing self-care activities can have significant consequences for the practitioner’s personal and professional functioning to include experiencing symptoms of burnout and compassion fatigue that may result in problems with professional competence. The American Psychological Association (2017) ethics code mandates ongoing self-monitoring and self-assessment to determine when one’s competence is at risk or already degraded and the need to then take needed corrective actions. Yet research findings demonstrate how flawed self-assessment is and that many clinicians will not know when assistance is needed or what support or interventions are needed. Instead, a communitarian approach to self-care is recommended. This involves creating and actively utilizing a competence constellation of engaged colleagues who assess and support each other on an ongoing basis. Recommendations are made for creating a self-care plan that integrates both one’s independent self-care activities and a communitarian approach. The role of this approach for promoting ongoing wellness and maintaining one’s clinical competence while preventing burnout and problems with professional competence is accentuated. The use of this approach as a preventive activity as well as one for overcoming clinician biases and self-assessment flaws is explained with recommendations provided for practical steps each mental health practitioner can take now and moving forward.
Impact Statement
This article addresses the important connections between clinical competence, threats to it, and the role of self-care for promoting ongoing clinical competence. The fallacy of accurate self-assessment of one’s competence and self-care needs is addressed, and support is provided for a communitarian approach to self-care and the maintenance of competence.
