Mitigating Psychological Distress Among Humanitarian Staff Working With Migrants and Refugees: A Case Example

Abstract

Ongoing acute stress in humanitarian work leads to psychological distress among humanitarian workers. Stress management within humanitarian agencies requires responses at both the individual staff member and agency levels. Stress management is often conceptualized in four categories: stress that can be accepted; stress that can be altered; stress to which individuals can adapt; and stress that can be avoided. Humanitarian workers accept the stress created by the environment in which they choose to work. They can manage stress by altering their own behaviors through improved communication skills and the implementation of self-care plans. They can adapt, with the help of staff care plans such as counseling and peer support, to the stress created by their own histories of trauma or mental illness. The stress created by the workplace can be avoided. However, without a comprehensive support plan for mitigating psychological distress, both the individual humanitarian worker and the agency overall suffer. This article reviews current literature regarding the impact of avoidable stress and the impact of adaptation programs such as staff care and stress management plans on humanitarian work, and illustrates these impacts with a case example from the Danish Refugee Council, an international non-governmental organization with approximately 300 employees working in Greece.

Innovations in Addressing Mental Health Needs in Humanitarian Settings: A Complexity Informed Action Research Case Study

“…As a whole, the staff were caring, intelligent and motivated people who were often frustrated and exhausted by the demands placed on them in the context of very limited resources. Terms used in the foundationalist literature to describe the potential impact of prolonged exposure to such stress include burnout, compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatization, and secondary stress (Ager et al, 2012;Cocker and Joss, 2016;Surya et al, 2017;Guskovict and Potocky, 2018;Chemali et al, 2019). Discussions around the distinctions between these terms often reflect the essentializing nature of that epistemological perspective.…”

“…The practical reality is frontline healthcare staff are routinely required to deal with the mental health challenges of many patients who have been displaced from their home or country, are grieving the loss of friends and family, have experienced and/or witnessed unspeakable acts of violence, and are continuing to live with the stress of being a refugee or displaced person. The workers must engage with them whether or not they are prepared for the level of distress a given patient brings to the interaction, which takes a toll on the workers themselves (Ager et al, 2012;Cocker and Joss, 2016;Surya et al, 2017;Guskovict and Potocky, 2018;Chemali et al, 2019). This is the problem that was brought to the Global Health Communication Center (GHCC) at Indiana University-Indianapolis by a large local non-governmental organization (NGO) in Jordan, providing healthcare to refugees from multiple countries.…”

The Impact of Work-Related Barriers on Job Satisfaction of Practitioners Working with Migrants

“…A sample of German refugee aid workers expressed that learning about mental health problems and how to intervene was more important to them than learning about self-care and receiving psychological support for themselves (Grimm et al 2017). Moreover, evidence suggests that humanitarian work can cause secondary traumatic stress (i.e., secondary exposure to trauma), vicarious trauma, and burnout in practitioners (Guskovict and Potocky 2018;Roden-Foreman et al 2017). Interestingly, symptoms of secondary traumatic stress and high levels of compassion satisfaction (i.e., satisfaction that results from an individual's ability to aid) have also been demonstrated to coexist (Lusk and Terrazas 2015;Stamm 2010).…”

Compassion Satisfaction, Burnout and Secondary Traumatic Stress among Humanitarian Workers in Gashora Emergency Transit Mechanism Rwanda

“…Several organizations, including the Ministry in charge of Emergency Management (MINEMA), ADRA, World Vision, African Humanitarian Action (AHA), Humanity Inclusion (HI), Prison Fellowship Rwanda (PFR), Save the Children International (SCI), and Rwanda Red Cross (RRC), operate in the ETM to provide humanitarian aid (UNHCR, 2023). Despite limited mental health training, humanitarian workers often work with individuals who have experienced severe life events (Guskovict & Potocky, 2018). Studies reveal that such work can lead to sleep deprivation, intrusive thoughts (Cardozo et al, 2013), burnout (Strohmeier et al, 2018, post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms (Nordahl, 2016), increasing the risk for depression and burnout (Cardozo et al, 2012).…”