Organizational Prevention of Vicarious Trauma

Abstract

WHETHER SHAPING PUBLIC POLICY or providing services to individuals, families, and communities, social workers are fully engaged with today's social problems. This difficult work can take an emotional and psychological toll on the worker (Davies, 1998;Gibson, McGrath, & Reid, 1989). This stress comes not only from responding to people in pain and crisis; characteristics of the organization also contribute to the stress (Sze & Ivker, 1986). This occupational stress has been examined primarily in terms of burnout (Maslach, 1993), but recent research in the field of trauma has identified stresses unique to that work. These stresses have been conceptualized as vicarious trauma (McCann & Pearlman, 1990b;Pearlman & Saakvitne, 1995a, 1995b. To date, most research has focused on the individual characteristics thought to contribute to vicarious trauma. There has been less focus on the organizational structures that may contribute. In this article, we draw on the research on organizational correlates of burnout as a background for examining the research on vicarious trauma and then outline various organizational strategies suggested by practitioners working with trauma survivors to prevent vicarious trauma. This discussion is informed by a qualitative study of counselors working with victims of domestic violence (Bell, 1998(Bell, , 1999 that suggested the importance of the work environment, among other issues, in the development of vicarious trauma. Quotations by counselors from that study will be used to illustrate the discussion. Organizational Correlates of BurnoutMaslach (1993) described burnout as having three dimensions: (a) emotional exhaustion; (b) depersonalization, defined as a negative attitude towards clients, a personal detachment, or loss of ideals; and (c) reduced personal accomplishment and commitment to the profession. Burnout has been conceptualized as a process rather than a condition or state, and some have theorized that it progresses sequentially through each of these dimensions (Maslach, 1993). Maslach and others have examined the individual, interpersonal, and organizational characteristics that contribute to burnout. Of particular interest to this discussion is the finding that organizations can either promote job satisfaction or

Integrating a Trauma-Informed Care Perspective in Baccalaureate Social Work Education: Guiding Principles

“…Education on trauma has largely focused on understanding individual trauma (Audergon, 2004;Bell et al, 2003), yet trauma can also be experienced collectively and impact functioning within larger community (Nytagodien & Neal, 2004) and organizational systems (Bloom, 2010). Social services organizations often operate under conditions of chronic stress (Bloom, 2010) including working with traumatized and challenging clients, limited resources, workforce issues, and political and social scrutiny.…”

“…One reason could be, as previously discussed, the potential for students to experience duress when exposed to trauma content. MSW students may be viewed as having more life and/or work experience than BSW students, and therefore, perceived as mature enough to manage the sensitive nature of the content (Bell, Kulkarni, & Dalton, 2003;Neumann & Gamble, 1995).…”

“…Furthermore, educators can help them to work more effectively in organizations by engaging in practice behaviors that contribute to healthy organizational environments, including knowing when and how to practice self-care and provide peer support to co-workers who may be dealing with traumatic stress (Bell et al, 2003). In addition to classroom teaching, students can gain experience applying skills during their field placements, for instance, reviewing organizational procedures and policies and assessing them from a trauma-informed perspective.…”

The Compatibility of Administrative and Educative Supervison

“…(Winofsky & Calvert, 2012, p. 6) In all of the experience as a supervisor, I was never educated on how to deal with child deaths from an internal supervisor. Nor did the organization ever take any responsibility for any of the supervisors and social workers I watched burnout from secondary traumatic stress (STS) (Bell, Kulkarni, & Dalton, 2003;Meyers & Cornille, 2002;Nelson-Gardell & Harris, 2003). There were many.…”

“…The real issue being that the social workers who had just experienced trauma of a case gone wrong, or they were re-experiencing secondary trauma due to the issue of being close to types of cases they had worked on, were treated as secondary to the administrative tasks (Adams & Balfour, 1998;Bell, et al 2003;Bride & Jones, 2006;Calvert, 20100210 [personal journal] (Erera & Lazar, 1994a;Newell & MacNeil, 2010;Tromski-Klingshirn, 2006). …”