Exposure to trauma in intimate partner violence human service work: A scoping review.

Abstract

Human service professionals offering psychosocial services to people who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) report multiple impacts to their physical and psychological well-being. These impacts have been described and investigated through multiple concepts including vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress disorder, compassion fatigue, and posttraumatic stress disorder. This scoping review mapped the relevant empirical literature on this topic guided by the question: What has been found in the empirical, peer-reviewed, scholarly literature examining exposure to the aversive details of IPV among human service professionals? A total of 13 relevant empirical studies investigating the impacts of exposure to the aversive details of IPV and human service professionals were found. The results were charted, collated, and summarized. The results support previous research finding IPV human service professionals to be at elevated risk of harm as a result of their work. The impacts of IPV practice were predominantly described as challenging. Some research participants also reported having experienced positive growth and appreciation for their work despite exposure to traumatic events. Protective factors including workplace social support emerged. Implications for practice, training, and research are offered.

The Impacts of Working With Victims of Sexual Violence: A Rapid Evidence Assessment

“…Negative, disruptive effects of working with victims of sexual violence were also prevalent in staff’s interviews. Avoidance, intrusive thoughts, nightmares, flashbacks, and persistent visual imagery of client’s abuse were often present ( Brend et al, 2020 ; Hunt, 2018 ; Joubert et al, 2017 ; Parkes et al, 2019a ).…”

“…For those professionals who had children, especially if they worked with child victims or adult survivors of child sexual abuse, their parenting styles became overprotective and controlling ( Parkes et al, 2019a ; Rostron & Furlonger, 2017 ). Some staff, particularly males, reported constantly reevaluating their interactions with their own children ( Parkes et al, 2019a ) or their family in general ( Brend et al, 2020 ). Professionals also became increasingly suspicious and distrustful of other’s intentions, with an emphasis on a loss of trust in males generally, family members, or males around children ( Coleman, 2018 ; Parkes et al, 2019a ; Taylor et al, 2019 ).…”

“…They often faced ethical and professional dilemmas about their role and the usefulness or necessity of their role (Backe, 2018;Javaid, 2017). Faced with these issues, staff felt stressed and unable to cope with the demands of the job, their sense of selfworth, confidence, and self-efficacy as professionals were diminished, felt disempowered and meaningless in their job, as well as experiencing constant doubt and ruminations over decisions taken due to no longer perceiving themselves as skilled to a high standard (Albaek et al, 2020;Brend et al, 2020;Gatuguta et al, 2019;O'Dwyer et al, 2019). This effect was exacerbated when they lacked clear guidance, guidelines, or resources (Backe, 2018;Kreinath, 2019), when there was an overreliance on procedures, and when they did not feel that the organizations they worked for would support their decisions (Albaek et al, 2020).…”

“…However, in Denkinger et al's (2018) study receiving supervision was not related to VT, suggesting that quality of supervision is paramount. Several studies supported the idea of a change from quantity to quality supervision, with it being most effective if it was needs based and in the format desired by the professionals (Brend et al, 2020;Massey et al, 2019). Ideally, formal supervision would be done regularly with a qualified external person both in one-to-one and group-based format (Taylor et al, 2019).…”

“…Improved personal lives. Working with victims of sexual violence also had positive effects in their personal lives, such as feeling more pleasure and contentment with their family life and spousal relationships (Brend et al, 2020;Coleman, 2018); having improved relationships with friends and family, particularly with other women (Taylor et al, 2019); developing more confidence, assertiveness, and personal resilience (Dutton et al, 2017;Frey et al, 2017); and being more aware of stereotypes and biases around sexual violence offenses and victims, including decreases in their sexist views (Brend et al, 2020).…”