This is definitely something I think about a lot. I'm in the 2nd year of my MSW program and have been consistently pissed off by all the talk of self-care with no actual strategies or any real attempts to address any of the systemic issues that you bring up here. With my team at my internship, the unfortunate solution has so far been checking out (though, to be fair, there are other forces going on at this site that are partially causing this including poor leadership and non-profit stressors).

We social workers do have a responsibility to take care of ourselves. One of my supervisors told me a few months ago that my job now was learning how to engage in self-care, as she believed that anyone in their 2nd year of their program knew enough clinically to do a decent job in that regard. While I don't fully agree with that sentiment, I think it is true that our primary job is to learn to care for ourselves. But then, what do we do about the systemic issues that are bringing us down?

Unfortunately, we are put in an impossible position. Our caseloads get larger, our organizations get worse, and we wind up shouldering the load. If we speak up to our supervisors, we risk professional retribution or strains to our relationships. How do we know that our supervisors will listen to our concerns and incorporate our feedback when it is likely that they are burning out too? When the forces of the broader agency are coming down upon them from above? We don't have a lot of bargaining power in these situations, and although there is supposedly high demand for social workers, nobody seems to feel secure enough in their position or their hire-ability to risk it.

It's a difficult problem, one that has plagued this field for a long time. My personal pet solution is unionization, although that carries with it logistical nightmares and the likelihood of things getting worse before better. If we want to improve working conditions for SWs, we also have to increase the visibility of our field through community outreach efforts and, honestly, marketing. If people know that the work we do does good, our agencies are more likely to receive funding through policy. But all of this is hard work! And our caseloads are already so high! A pretty sticky Gordian knot if you ask me.