Barriers to frontline manager support for high-trauma workers

Abstract

Purpose Exposure to high-trauma work has been associated with negative outcomes for individuals and organisations. Support for these employees can buffer and protect against mental health problems. Frontline managers (FLMs) are well placed to provide for employee support needs but are often not effective in doing so. The purpose of this paper is to identify and understand barriers to provision of four different types of social support as identified by House (1981) by FLMs to employees in a high-trauma workplace. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study investigates three Australian ambulance service organisations, including 72 interviews. Findings Nine barriers to support are identified that can obstruct the provision of optimum employee support. These relate to the FLM themselves, the workplace context and employee-centric factors. Research limitations/implications This paper is a single industry case study; further complexity may exist in other high-trauma industries. Future research should consult policy makers to develop strategies to address the barriers to FLM support. Practical implications FLMs are critical support persons as they are well placed to provide many employee support needs. Emotional support is the foundation for facilitating all other types of support to employees but results here indicate it is often lacking for workers in high-trauma workplaces for a range of individual and organisational barriers that operate in isolation and combined. Originality/value This paper juxtaposes House’s (1981) support framework with study findings to provide a model of the barriers to optimal employee support. This model contributes to a reconceptualisation of the relationship between employee and direct manager that is particularly pertinent for high-trauma contexts.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mental health and work morale of radiographers within a conventional X-ray department

“…The NHS is under unprecedented pressure with high workloads and chronic understaffing in many disciplines impacting on already weakened mental health. 23 The COVID-19 pandemic has likely contributed to the decline in mental health of key workers across the NHS 24 and made life even harder for an already overstretched workforce. Half of respondents felt extreme or significant pressure in the environment they work in, whilst a quarter (25% n ¼ 4/16) said the pandemic had significantly or extremely affected their work morale; these feelings tended to be by practitioners who were qualified the least amount of time and therefore perhaps were the most vulnerable.…”

Violence at work in the ambulance service: the role of HRM and other systems

“…Peer support is effective in reducing stress and incidence of mental health conditions (Scully, 2011). In high trauma positions such as ambulance work, free access to registered psychologists is also common (Kellner, Townsend, Loudoun, & Wilkinson, 2019b).…”

“…a less structured debrief) between paramedic and supervisor more common. Communication with a supervisor following a traumatic incident is important for emotional processing, identifying necessary recourse such as psychological assistance or leave requirements, and determining next steps if the paramedic is going to press criminal charges (Kellner et al, 2019b). Participants report the threat of physical or sexual violence can be as traumatic as an actual incident, and trigger a severe response, as the previous interviewee continues:…”

“…Trauma resilience education, violence de-escalation training, peer support, psychological and counselling support can assist paramedics to manage violence and its effects. Existence of wellresourced and quality systems assist employees to process and rehabilitate from violence and trauma (Kellner, Townsend, Loudoun, Dao-Tran, & Wilkinson, 2019a;Kellner et al, 2019b), or in the case of de-escalation training, potentially reduce the incidence of assault. As noted by others (Boyle & Wallis, 2016), inconsistencies exist in training (resilience and de-escalation) for paramedics and students during tertiary study.…”

“…The first layer of response and protection of employees is the HRM system. Analysis of barriers to accessing HRM support mechanisms, the effectiveness of these mechanisms and the intervening role of line managers has been discussed in the ambulance service context elsewhere (Kellner et al, 2019b). The choices HR managers make about which practices to adopt and how they are implemented are made even more critical given potential consequences involved.…”