Holistic self-care: AOD workers

The importance of AOD worker self-care cannot be understated. Applying a holistic approach to self-care and the use of active coping strategies may assist AOD workers in responding to distressing events, lessen workplace stress, foster resilience, and increase their capacity to respond to workplace situations. AOD workers have described the usefulness of both self-initiated and organisational strategies which may include [389, 431, 1599, 1619–1624]:

• Physical self-care: Maintaining a balanced, healthy diet; sleeping well; allowing time every day for lunch and physical exercise; making time for relaxation and leisure activities; being aware of one’s own AOD use.
• Emotional self-care: Using relaxation techniques (such as those in Appendix BB and Appendix CC); practising self-compassion; maintaining a balance between work commitments and family/personal life; scheduling regular holidays and other breaks from work (e.g., conferences, education seminars, clinical supervision); maintaining healthy supportive relationships; seeking help from medical or mental health specialists when needed.
• Professional self-care: Creating and contributing to a physically and psychologically safe working environment; ensuring opportunities to formally and informally debrief with co-workers; maintaining contact with peers and avoiding professional isolation; engaging in peer support, clinical supervision, and professional development activities; using time-management skills; taking the opportunity to address work-related concerns, demands, unfairness, or inequity; maintaining a feasible workload; diversifying work activities.