“How do you handle the stress of being a social worker?”

Being a social worker can involve stress whether the stress is from case load size or serving a population with grave needs. In my experience there are supports to social workers in terms of training, continuing education, etc.
specialty areas such as hospice include workplace support groups or time to discuss and process the work. However, like life in general, it is up to you to first examine how you currently manage or release stress and if social work is the profession for you. A balanced life that includes, physical activity, good nutrition, mindfulness and good sleep is a great way to live and work. You may better tolerate a part time social service job and a part time job in a less stressful setting.
If working directly with clients has too much stress, there are other ways social workers contribute in politics as mayors, commissioners and more to be the change agents social workers strive to be.

I do my own therapy, practice self care to include protected exercise time, sleep, diet, and spiritual care. Seek supervision and have mentors for different circumstances.

Getting sleep, exercising and eating well are good habits. Any sort of outlet like meditation or being outdoors also can help.

Self-care. I am fairly rigid about my schedule during my workdays. I go to bed by a certain time, wake up at the same time every day, I work out 4 to 5 days a week. Many therapists practice meditation, mindfulness, yoga, etc. I also try to eat well. I minimize expectations of myself during the week, save to the weekend and have never worked a 5 day week. Fridays are my downtime days.

Well there are certainly a lot of ways a person could go about handling the stress. Many people succumb to negative ways, I have fallen into that category more than once when starting out. Now that I'm in my 50's, I find that the best ways to deal with stress are practicing good self care. plenty of sleep, eat properly, and exercise. Along with that I meditate/pray. Stress can build up on you like a residue, it will weigh you down and get you feeling depressed. so the number one thing to do to reduce the stress is talk, talk to a therapist yourself, or a member of the clergy or a friend. Keep things with your client base confidential, but talk about why the cases make you feel stress, process your own feelings. A professor once said that me, first and foremost take care of your self. if you cant take care of yourself, you cant take care of others.

I am a self employed psychotherapist and have been a social worker for 30 years. In my professional relationship with clients there is no stress - I relate to them as human people and help them resolve their issues. When I started, billing and regulations were easy. But over the years billing has got more complicated and regulations have got more complex, in many instances perhaps unnecessarily so. The computer (and the need to use the computer) requires knowledge and effort that some people may find stressful. It is the difference between reading and enjoying Shakespeare and writing Shakespeare.