Description: This resource from Rose Brooks Center (the largest domestic violence agency in Missouri, USA) is a sample of key practices in 10 areas used to "engage staff, build strength, collective resilience, and at the same time improve services for survivors" (pg. 1).
The headings for the key practices are as follows:
1- Hiring process
Organised and thoughtful hiring process
Staff onboarding and new hire training
2- Staff/employee performance evaluation
3- Support to address trauma exposure (secondary trauma)
Staff wellness
Organisational response to vicarious trauma
Flexibility/work-life balance
4- Compensation
Salary
Leave time
Benefits
5- Staff development
Meaningful and challenging development plans
Training
6- Leadership strategies
Integrate staff retention into agency policy, formal practices, and resource development
Staff involvement and feedback to inform staff retention strategies
Leadership conducts annual evaluation of factors impacting staff retention, quality of services, and sustained agency operations
7- Workplace environment and culture
Space
Employee feedback/input
8- Communication
Management transparency
9- Organisation staff meetings
10- Clear mission and values
Sense of purpose in the workplace
What's the evidence base for this resource: This resource is a sample of Rose Brooks Center's policies and procedures, and does not provide any evidence itself. However, the agency is recognised by accrediting bodies as adhering to best practice standards and has won awards for its services.
Potential uses and limitations: This resource is a useful high-level map of organisational strategies to enhance employee support/engagement and address vicarious trauma. It does not provide detailed guidance for any particular issue, but may serve as inspiration or generate ideas on organisational and workplace strategies.
Where it comes from: This resource was presented as a handout within the webinar 'Strategies to Enhance Employee Resilience and Engagement within Survivor-Serving Organizations' hosted by Futures Without Violence in May 2020. Rose Brooks Center's Chief Operating Officer was one of three presenters in the webinar.
Rose Brooks Center is the largest domestic violence agency in the American state of Missouri. The agency has 100 employees and reaches approximately 15,000 individuals annually.
Description: Presentation of a PhD study (slides and notes in pdf format) into the relationships between Job Demands (e.g. workload), Job Satisfaction, Job Control, Organisational and External Support (e.g. effective supervision, family networks), and Burnout.
The research was via a survey with 167 Forensic Interviewers whose role is to interview children that have made disclosures of abuse.
See p39 of the document for the summary.
Key points:
Burnout and Job-Satisfaction can co-exist, however higher levels of Job Satisfaction predict lower Burnout.
The higher level of Job Control, the higher the level of Job Satisfaction.
The more support (both external and organisational), the less Burnout is reported.
What's the evidence base for this resource: The study was accepted for a PhD dissertation through West Chester University, Graduate Social Work Dept.
Potential uses and limitation: Specific focus on forensic interviewers in North Eastern States of USA. While the findings are useful, the study is not intended to prescribe detailed interventions that can be implemented.
Where it comes from: PhD Candidate, Christina M. Chiarelli-Helminiak. West Chester University, Graduate Social Work Dept.
Description: Comprehensive resource book including information about Vicarious trauma and related issues. While many of the practical tools are for individual level reflection, there is clear discussion about risk factors and protective factors in the work environment. Also addresses the broader community context, including cultural practices and social inequality. Includes worksheets and reflection guides.
Chapter headings:
Definitions
Biology of Stress and Trauma
Signs and Symptoms
Risk Factors
Protective Factors
Resilience and Self-care
Reflective Practice
Taking Action
What's the evidence base for this resource: Based on comprehensive literature summaries and extensive consultation in the field.
Potential uses and limitation: The resource is created for Early Childhood services, however much of the content is relevant for all types of trauma-related services.
The practical tools (e.g. worksheets, assessment guides) tend to be geared towards individual level self-care, even though the work environment is clearly discussed as a key factor.
Where it comes from: Best Start Resource Centre, Ontario, Canada.
Description: Chapter about how organisations can foster a culture of self-care and compassion. While highlighting the importance of individual self-care, equal emphasis is placed on the role of organisational practices in supporting staff to do so. Supporting staff in this way is viewed as a component of providing high quality services to client, rather than a competing demand.
What's the evidence base for this resource: The chapter is an excerpt from the book TheUC San Francisco Trauma Recovery Center Model: Removing Barriers to Care and Transforming Services for Survivors of Violent Crime. Edited by Stacey Wiggall, LCSW & Alicia Boccellari, Ph.D. Produced in collaboration with Allen/Loeb Associates (Version 1: March15, 2017)
Potential uses and limitation: Is aimed at Trauma recovery/crisis response services. However the suggestions about organisational practices to support staff self-care are relevant to a range of service types.
Where it comes from: The UC San Francisco Trauma Recovery Center.
Description: This presentation describes the key clinical features of PTSD, including
the current diagnostic criteria, accompanying clinical presentations,
functional outcomes and common comorbid conditions that present with
PTSD.
The talk presents data on the prevalence and presenting
features of PTSD across varying workplace settings, including
first-responders (paramedics, fire-fighters, police), defence, primary
health care settings, drug and alcohol services, and forensic settings.
Prevalence
rates and important issues for consideration are highlighted in
relation to PTSD in these workplace settings and the heterogeneity of
PTSD presentations are highlighted.
What's the evidence base for this resource: The presenter, Professor Kim Felmingham, is a recognised academic expert on workplace related mental health issues. We have a high level of confidence that the information presented is accurate and reliable.
Potential uses and limitation: Concise information on the prevalence of workplace trauma across a range of workplaces. Briefly summarises some of the evidence regarding organisational culture as a protective factor, and what organisations can do to support workers dealing with trauma exposure.
Where it comes from: Recorded as part of WorkSafe Tasmania PTSD: "Mental Health Matters" Conference, 14th October 2019.
Content Warning:
These videos address issues relating to post
traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions. Please be
aware that presentations may contain content and imagery that may be
confronting or cause distress.
Description: Fear based models of PTSD have dominated research and clinical approaches to PTSD since the 1990s. The role of overwhelming horror, injustice, embitterment and shame emerge as alternative pathways to traumatic stress injury and the role of such emotions in addition to exposure to ‘life threat’. This session will provide attendees with an overview of research in moral injury which aims to expand treatments for PTSD to better address role of these forms of traumatic stress injury.
What's the evidence base for this resource: Professor Zachary Steel is a recognized academic researcher at the University of New South Wales. We have a high degree of confidence in the information presented.
Does not provide any advice on how this could be addressed at an organisational/primary prevention level.
Where it comes from: Recorded as part of WorkSafe Tasmania PTSD: "Mental Health Matters" Conference, 14th October 2019
Content Warning: These videos address issues relating to post traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions. Please be aware that presentations may contain content and imagery that may be confronting or cause distress.
Description: This set of Supervisory Guides provides advice on creating trauma informed workplaces that are disability inclusive for both staff and clients.
The four themes covered are:
Part 1: Hiring
Part 2: Onboarding New Staff
Part 3: Supervision
Part 4: Supporting Staff with Boundaries and Safety
Downloadable from the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center website.
What's the evidence base for this resource: These are practice based resources, developed from the experiences of partner organisations.
Potential uses and limitation: They are best used along with in-person, interactive training to allow executive leadership, human resources, and supervisors the opportunity to practice skills and discuss challenges and ideas with each other. Particularly helpful to support supervisors prepare for conversations about both accessibility and vicarious trauma with new staff members.
Where it comes from: US based coalition MASS (Movement for Access, Safety & Survivors),
Description: The (US based) Resiliency Project engaged researchers, educators, and
practitioners from the child abuse field in a collaborative effort to
develop, implement, and evaluate an organisationally based program to
build resiliency in staff and volunteers. Twelve service organisations participated in the project.
Key to the project were the pilot "resiliency coaches" who evaluated all training and technical assistance products related to the organisational program model.
The model identified 5 key themes- self-knowledge and insight, sense of hope, healthy coping, strong relationships, and personal perspective and meaning- that can be promoted in the culture of organisations.
What's the evidence base for this resource: Evaluation conducted by the Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (IDVSA) at the University of Texas School of Social Work.
Potential uses and limitation: It includes
examples of specific interventions implemented under the categories of
Policy, Supervisory Technique, and Competency-based Training. There are a range of training and reflection exercises that could be useful in supervision contexts. Suggested practice examples range from personal reflections, through to policies that promote staff well being.
Where it comes from: Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (IDVSA) in the Center for Social Work Research, School of Social Work
Description Discussion paper with a focus on workers in the sexual assault sector.
What's the evidence base for this resource Based on a narrative review of relevant research literature, and interviews with Australian sexual assault counsellors. This was not a formal research study but provides some 'practice insight' from workers in the field.
Potential uses and limitations: Includes a section highlighting organisational support to prevent and address vicarious trauma.
Could also be useful for supervision.
Where it comes from: 2007 paper from the Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault (a now defunct department of the Australian Institute of Family Studies).
Description: Information page on prevention of workplace stress and trauma covers the topics:
What can I do if I'm experiencing work-induced stress or trauma?
What's the evidence base for this resource Does not directly cite any research literature. However 1800 Respect is a well established, high profile organisation and the information presented is broadly consistent with the evidence on staff wellbeing.
Potential uses and limitations The information is presented as dot point summaries of key themes. There are specific strategies suggested for primary prevention in relation to vicarious trauma. May be useful as a discussion starter.
Where it comes from 1800RESPECT is the Australian national sexual assault, domestic and family violence telephone counselling service.
Description: Australian webinar,
panel discussion with workers from Blue Knot Foundation, with a
particular focus on working with survivors of institutional child sexual
abuse. The content is directed primarily at therapists working with
people who
have experienced childhood sexual abuse. It may have limited relevance
for workers who are not providing therapy/counselling.
Note that it takes 10 minutes to get to content related to VT. The first 10 minutes or so are introductions to the panel and administrative matters.
Themes:
Heavily focused on individual level impacts and strategies for self-care for therapists.
Individual warning signs and differences between VT, PTSD, burnout, and compassion fatigue.
Continuum of impacts of VT.
Emphasises that exposure to trauma material is the primary risk factor for developing VT, rather than personal attributes.
Highlights
that VT is more of a risk when there is only one worker supporting the
client, rather than a network/community of support.
Speakers
acknowledge that supportive management is a protective factor, but give
insufficient details of what this involves in practice.
At times the focus of the panelists drifts from VT and on to the therapeutic needs of people who have experienced sexual abuse.
Talking points from Q&A section:
There is no metric for an ideal number of 'trauma clients' in a caseload. This might vary from day to day. The point is that organisation management and leadership have a sound understanding of the impacts that trauma exposure can have on workers. It is a false equation that more client contacts/appointments equals better performance. Organisations have an ethical obligation to resist KPI driven funding arrangements that are ultimately harmful to clients.
One panelist comments that the ethical thing for workers
to do, if they are not feeling 'strong and grounded', is to acknowledge
this. If the worker is not in a state to regulate their own responses
to trauma material, it is not ethical for them to engage a client to
explore deeply traumatic material.
Body based (somatic) healing as a crucial component of managing vicarious trauma.
See 59:40 for question/discussion about when you as a worker feel 'trapped in a toxic workplace' but cannot leave because of finances.
See 1h05m50s for differences between 'immediate' trauma symptoms and cumulative VT.
What's the evidence base for this resource: Primarily draws on practice experience of the panelists.
Potential uses and limitations: Discussion starter for group supervision around VT impacts and self-care. Could also be a prompt for managers and supervisors to raise their own awareness of organisational responsibilities regarding vicarious trauma.
Where it comes from The Blue Knot Foundation is an Australian organisation that supports adults who have experienced childhood trauma.
Description Chapter on Vicarious Trauma and self-care (Chapter 14, page 105) for GP's when working with patients experiencing abuse, violence and trauma.
What's the evidence base for this resource: Consistent reference to the research and relevant literature. Includes reference list.
Potential uses and limitation: Includes ideas for personal and organisational strategies to enhance protective factors: awareness, balance and connection. Many of the themes here are relevant across different types of organisations where trauma exposure is present.
Where it comes from: The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners 'White Book'.
Description: This series of video presentations critiques the notions of 'burnout' and 'vicarious trauma'. Instead, Dr Reynolds suggests 'spiritual pain' as a more accurate term to describe what happens when workers are faced with the effects that oppression has on the lives of clients. She argues that the key question for workers and organisations is not 'how is your mental health?', but rather 'how are we treating each other?'
Dr Reynolds has also written about her approach to 'centring ethics' in supervision to explore the harms experienced by workers in this article which she has made freely available through her website.
Dr Vikki Reynolds is an activist/therapist who works to bridge the worlds of social justice activism with community work & therapy.
What's the evidence base for this resource: Dr Reynold's
experience includes supervision and therapy with refugees and survivors
of torture, sexualized violence counsellors, mental health and substance
misuse counsellors, housing and shelter workers, activists and working
alongside gender and sexually diverse communities.
Potential uses and limitation: Provides a perspective on "vicarious trauma" that challenges clinical, symptom focused frameworks. Useful for workplaces that place ethical considerations at the centre of their work, to think about how teams and organisations can develop effective practices of collective care and accountability.
Where it comes from: Dr Vikki Reynolds' professional development presentation for the BC Settlement and Language Service Providers' Provincial Meeting hosted by AMSSA, 2017.
Description: A special edition of a journal with a range of short articles related to Vicarious Trauma, Secondary Traumatic Stress etc.
Table of Contents
Overview
Helping that Hurts: Child Welfare Secondary Traumatic Stress Reactions, Charles R. Figley, PhD 4
Occupational
Hazards of Work in Child Welfare: Direct Trauma, Secondary Trauma and
Burnout, Kimberly K. Shackelford, PhD, LCSW 6
Secondary Traumatic Stress and Supervisors: The Forgotten Victims, Crystal Collins-Camargo, MSW, PhD 8
The Vicious Cycle: Policy, the Media, and Secondary Traumatic Stress, David Chenot, PhD, MDiv, LCSW 10
Media Influence on Development of Secondary Traumatic Stress in Child Welfare Workers, Kate Richardson, Dip SW, BA 11
Secondary Traumatic Stress in Child Welfare: Multi-Level Prevention and Intervention Strategies, Alison Hendricks, LCSW 12
Vicarious Traumatization and Work in Child Welfare Organizations: Risk, Prevention, and Intervention, Joy D. Osofsky, PhD 14
Best Practices
Preparing MSW Students for Practicing in Child Welfare, Ronald Rooney, PhD 15
Withstanding Secondary Traumatic Stress: The Role of Realistic Recruitment, Nancy S. Dickinson, MSSW, PhD 16
Screening for Secondary Traumatic Stress in Child Welfare Workers, Brian E. Bride, PhD, LCSW 18
A
Psychoeducation Model for Teaching Child Welfare Practitioners to Dump
Their Secondary Traumatic Stress Buckets, Josephine Pryce, PhD, MSW 19
What Can Child Welfare Workers Do about Vicarious Trauma?, Laurie Anne Pearlman, PhD 20
Social Support in the Workplace and Secondary Trauma, Anita P. Barbee, MSSW, PhD 21
Going
Beyond Self Care: Effectively Addressing Secondary Traumatic Stress
Among Child Protective Staff, Erika Tullberg, MPA, MPH, Roni Avinadav,
PhD and Claude M. Chemtob, PhD 22
The Secondary Trauma
Prevention Project: A Multilevel Systems Approach to Protect Child
Welfare Staff from Secondary Trauma, David Conrad, LCSW 23
Developing,
Continuously Improving, and Disseminating Culturally-Appropriate
Workplace Policies to Prevent and Mitigate Secondary Traumatic Stress
among Child Welfare Workers, James C. Caringi, PhD and Hal A. Lawson,
PhD 24
Perspectives & Collaborations
What's the evidence base for this resource: Peer reviewed journal.
Potential uses and limitations: Focused on child protection/welfare but much of the content has broader relevance.
Some articles include descriptions of organisational interventions. These are free to access academic articles, they are mostly written in a way that is relatively accessible to non-academic workers in the field.
Where it comes from: Link to journal (free to access via the US VTT site):
https://vtt.ovc.ojp.gov/ojpasset/Documents/OS_STS_Child_Welfare_Article_Review.pdf
Description: Website dedicated to educating caring professionals about Compassion Fatigue. Provides a range of information resources, mostly focussed on individual level self-care. Has link to the ProQOL assessment tool (Professional Quality of Life).
Includes a video presentation about the personal impacts and responses to Compassion Fatigue.
What's the evidence base for this resource: While the resources do not appear to be systematically appraised in regards to academic rigour, the site states that their aim is "gathering, documenting, and disseminating useful information that can be readily introduced into care giving environments in order to impact the lives of caregivers in a positive way".
Potential uses and limitations: Could be particularly useful for educating managers and supervisors interested in learning more about the personal impacts of Compassion Fatigue. The primary focus is individual level impacts and self-care.
Where it comes from: This project is founded by Patricia Smith, who is a leading US educator around Compassion Fatigue.
http://www.compassionfatigue.org/
Description: Fully structured training program about Building Resiliency that addresses individual as well as organisational factors.
Provides handouts, ppt slides, etc. Training can be tailored (e.g. half day, full day etc) and individual modules selected.
What's the evidence base for this resource: The training material draws on established evidence and consultation with experts in the field.
Potential uses and limitations: Can be utilised by management and leaders with responsibility for staff wellbeing to deliver training sessions on a range of related topics. Importantly, there are modules which address organisational responsibilities for managers.
Where it comes from: Developed by US Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center "to support professional development, enhance services to the community, and expand outreach to under-served victims of crime".
The training materials can be downloaded from the US OVC website
Description: Describes the implementation of a staff self-care program across a large organisation. While many strategies were in some senses individual level, the key point was that the organisation provided the time and legitimacy for staff to participate in the activities.
Talking points:
p306: In an organisational setting, the assessment of personal trauma histories and other intra-individual characteristics typically is not appropriate or feasible.
p306: Hypothesis: Workers in organisations where there is little control over workload and sources of support (e.g., hospitals, outpatient public mental health clinics, government social services) and whose personal values may be in conflict with organisational goals (e.g., military mental health therapists, prison psychologists) would be more susceptible to burnout in comparison with workers who are self-employed, or where there is a better 'value fit'.
Link to abstract: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0011000010381790