Self-help and mutual peer support for helpers in difficult situations and stressful work environments

Abstract

The article provides a comprehensive overview of the most important risk factors threatening the mental health and personal integrity of both the voluntary and professional helpers working in emergency services and/or in permanently stressful work environments. The authors describe and make recommendations for effective use of certain self-help and mutual aid techniques in the everyday practice of helping. These techniques, with the exception of supervision, have rarely if ever been addressed in the domestic scientific literature; and even less often have been referred to as standards in the base-line training of social workers and other professional helpers.