You’re Not Alone: Protecting Your Well-Being While Working Alone in Social Services

Working alone is a common reality for many workers in social services, especially for those who provide direct services. If you have ever walked into a client’s home by yourself, answered an after-hours crisis call, or done outreach in the community without a colleague by your side, you know what working alone feels like. While technically you are with a client or a community member, but without immediate access to a co-worker or supervisor, you are still considered to be working alone. That separation from your team can create risks, not just to your physical safety, but to your mental and emotional health.

When we think about lone work, the first risks that usually come to mind are physical, such as potential for aggression, violence, or medical emergencies. However, the psychosocial hazards of isolation accumulate even when they are less visible. Loneliness, anxiety, emotional exhaustion, and the strain of carrying heavy stories on your own without anyone to talk to or debrief with can impact your wellbeing over time. Let’s take a look at those hazards and what might help.

Social service work often means being alongside people and walking with them as they face poverty, abuse, trauma, or mental health and substance use challenges. These encounters are incredibly meaningful, but they also leave a heavy mark. We sometimes carry their stories with us as workers and as individuals. When you are alone in those moments, you don’t have immediate support or validation that a co-worker may provide if you were working side by side. Instead, you have to rely on your own coping strategies, often by replaying difficult conversations or scenes after the fact.

Without a chance to debrief or process together, the emotional strain can build. Over time, without proper intervention or support, this can lead to symptoms of anxiety, depression, or even post-traumatic stress. This can be described as emotional loneliness, where you are surrounded by others through your work but have no place to share the loneliness, which eventually takes its toll.

Isolation also means you may not have immediate help if something goes wrong. Visiting a client whose behaviour is unpredictable, or walking into a situation where aggression might escalate, is stressful enough. Doing so without knowing that someone can step in right away adds another layer of anxiety and can leave you feeling constantly on guard.

Even with clients you know and trust, behaviour can shift depending on their current state of mind and life circumstances. For example, one worker shared how a lonely older male client began crossing her boundaries, becoming overly touchy once he grew too comfortable. Situations like this can feel confusing and uncomfortable, especially when you don’t have a colleague nearby to step in, validate your experience, or support you in deciding what to do next.

Being the only one present means carrying tough decisions without another perspective. The combination of safety concerns, blurred boundaries, and self-doubt can gradually break down your confidence and deepen the sense of isolation that comes with working alone.

The good news is there are strategies that can make lone work safer and less isolating. Many require organizational responsibility, but some are simple practices you can use as a worker.

Wellness and mental health supports. Take advantage of confidential resources such as Care to Speak or the Mobile Response Team for immediate support when you need it.

While concerns are often focused on the physical risks of working alone, the psychosocial hazards are just as significant. Isolation, the emotional weight of complex cases, and the unpredictability of client situations can leave lasting effects on your wellbeing.

Remember: You are not meant to carry this alone. With stronger organizational supports, ongoing peer connection, and proactive attention to your mental health, lone work can be safer, more sustainable, and less lonely. At the heart of social services is the principle of care, which must extend not only to clients but also to the workers who enter homes and communities alone.

Download our quick reference guide for practical tips to support workers who are working alone.