Developing Resilience for Social Work Practice

Gail Kinman is Professor of Occupational Health Psychology at the University of Bedfordshire, UK. She is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society and co-chairs their Work-life Balance Working Group which communicates evidence-based practice to organisations and employees. Gail has a long-standing research interest in occupational health psychology and has published widely in this field, with a particular focus on the wellbeing of people who work in emotionally demanding professions. Gail is currently involved in research projects at a national level with several occupational groups such as nurses, academic employees, prison officers, police, and fire and rescue service personnel. She is currently working with health and social care professionals to enhance the factors that underpin emotional resilience to stress. Louise Grant Louise Grant is a Principal Lecturer in Social work at the University of Bedfordshire. Prior to joining the University she worked as a social worker and as a manager in Children's Services. For the last 7 years, she has taught qualifying and post qualifying social workers. Her experience enables her to have an understanding of the complexities of social work practice and its emotional demand, and the tools required to ensure wellbeing and emotional resilience in practice. Louise has published several articles in high impact peer reviewed journals (such as the British Journal of Social Work) and in the general social work press, and presented her work at national and international conferences. She is working towards a PhD by published works.