Kathleen Flinton, front left, delivers a lecture on moral injury in N203 Stokes Hall. Courtesy photo.
No matter where they practice—schools, hospitals, government agencies, or NGOs—social workers often encounter clients experiencing anger, hopelessness, despair, guilt, and shame.
Increasingly, practitioners are experiencing these emotions too.
This “bruise on the soul,” said Kathleen Flinton, assistant professor of practice at the Boston College School of Social Work, is known as moral injury, an emerging concept gaining traction across disciplines.
Moral injury occurs when there is a betrayal of what’s right—by someone in authority or by oneself—in a high-stakes situation, Flinton told a group of students, faculty, and staff in Stokes Hall in mid-March.
The concept was first identified in military contexts, she said, but is now showing up in many fields where professionals operate within complex systems and face difficult ethical constraints.
Social workers, for example, are navigating shifting policy landscapes, limited resources, and complex client needs, often while serving as the frontline providers between broken systems and the communities they serve.
As a result of these conditions, they question their value, competence, and impact, leading to frustration, hopelessness, and burnout. Many leave the field, resulting in loss of mentorship and institutional knowledge.
“Sometimes we’re explaining things to clients, but we can’t offer a solution,” Flinton said during her talk, which marked the third event in BCSSW’s Conversations on Global Practice Speaker Series. Over time, she added, not being able to solve clients’ problems creates stress beyond vicarious trauma and affects moral and spiritual frameworks.
Flinton, who has worked with survivors of trauma for more than 20 years, argued that addressing moral injury requires a systemic perspective. “Start with ‘the system is failing,’” she said, “not ‘I didn’t do enough.’”
She emphasized the importance of valuing others in practice by showing up, respecting autonomy, and creating moments of care.
One example from her own work: Years after helping a woman through the asylum process, Flinton said the client returned to introduce her children. Of all the clinical support Flinton had provided, the client told her kids that she had given her a coat. The gesture was small, but it conveyed dignity.
“I look back on that and think I provided long-term mental health support. I wrote an affidavit. I testified in her case. I collaborated with her lawyers,” said Flinton, who co-chairs BCSSW’s Trauma Integration Initiative, which incorporates teaching, fieldwork, and research into a holistic program that prepares students to help clients cope with trauma while guarding themselves against its effects. “But the thing she remembered about me—and what she wanted her kids to know—was that I gave her a coat.”
Beyond individual acts, Flinton offered four strategies for responding to moral injury: Naming it, acknowledging reality without endorsing it, keeping a systemic focus, and processing experiences in community.
She encouraged providers to ask themselves, in difficult moments, “What is the next step toward justice? What is the next step toward dignity?”
Radical hope, she added, is essential. Quoting Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Díaz, she said: “Radical hope is our best weapon against despair. And even when despair seems justifiable, only radical hope could have imagined people like us into existence. And I believe that it will help us to create a better, more loving future.”
Social workers, Flinton concluded, are living in a world where moral injury is real, systemic, and widespread. While it’s impossible to fix all their clients’ problems, they can offer dignity, maintain their values, and continue to act in alignment with what’s right.
Assistant Professor William Byansi will give the fourth talk in the Conversations on Global Practice Speaker Series on April 16 at 12:30 p.m. in Stokes N203, where he will present a lecture titled “Advancing Adolescent Mental Health in Low-Resource Settings Through Integrated Social and Psychological Programs.”