Secondary Traumatic Stress: Relationship With Symptoms, Exhaustion, and Emotions Among Cemetery Workers

Abstract

Background: Cemeteries workers are deserving of attention because they are exposed to various psychosocial risks: these workers are subject to painful contacts and daily exposed to a work content linked to death experiences and the emotions associated with them. Secondary trauma develops from this continuous contact with others’ suffering; operators working with this type of traumatic content and dynamic could suffer from emotional disorders ( Figley, 1995 ). Therefore, the secondary traumatic stress (STS) is seen as an occupational risk factor ( Bride et al., 2004 ) and cemetery workers are subject to this risk. Studies on this topic have focused on the operators of emergencies, social, and health sectors; little attention has been given to cemetery workers. Aim: The present study considers the relations between the dimensions composing the STS and the psychological and physical symptoms, the perception of exhaustion, and the positive and negative emotions at work in a group of cemetery workers. Moreover, differences among occupational tasks are explored considering the different possibilities of contact with clients and trauma contagion. Methods: The study included a qualitative phase (interviews and focus groups) and subsequently a quantitative phase (self-report questionnaire) and involved 114 participants in a cemetery organization in northern Italy, divided into technicians employees (TE), technicians and specialists of decoration and garden (TS), gravediggers (GR) administrative and front office employees (AFO). Levels of secondary trauma and psychophysical symptoms were assessed, and correlations were calculated in the total sample and for the different job categories of employees. Results: AFO and TS showed the highest levels of STS and psychophysical symptoms, in particular for symptoms related to anxiety, sadness, insomnia, and gastric and musculoskeletal disorders. Conclusion: This study highlights the importance of considering the STS among also this category of workers, since they are exposed daily not only with death, but also with suffering people; grief and emotional skills are important to cope with these job characteristics cemetery workers are not trained on this. It is important to monitor symptomatic levels not only to avoid chronicity, but also to provide employees with psychological support and training about secondary trauma and its consequences.

Trauma during humanitarian work: the effects on intimacy, wellbeing and PTSD-symptoms

“…The link between STS and PTSD-symptoms among aid-workers is understudied. Associations between STS, trauma exposure, anxiety and depression (Colombo, Emanuel, & Zito, 2019;Gärtner, Behnke, Conrad, Kolassa, & Rojas, 2019) with an additional association to PTSD-symptoms and work stressors (Griffiths, Royse, & Walker, 2018) have been observed. Trauma exposure has been associated with pain and physical health problems (D'Andrea, Sharma, Zelechoski, & Spinazzola, 2011;Pérez, Abrams, López-Martínez, & Asmundson, 2012).…”

“…Trauma exposure has been associated with pain and physical health problems (D'Andrea, Sharma, Zelechoski, & Spinazzola, 2011;Pérez, Abrams, López-Martínez, & Asmundson, 2012). STS and exposure to trauma clients has been associated with fatigue, insomnia, joint/muscular pain, gastritis, headaches, and respiratory difficulties (Colombo et al, 2019). STS mediated the associations between exposure to trauma and perceived physical health (Lee, Gottfried, & Bride, 2018).…”

“…STS's negative association with health also received support (Chemali et al, 2017;Gärtner et al, 2019). For example, cemetery workers' constant contact with the deceased often internalize others' pain, resulting in suffering from similar health and pain symptoms (Colombo et al, 2019). Mindfulness, meditation and yoga reduced aid-workers perceived stress and back pain, and raised their physical awareness, wellbeing and coping strategies (Chemali et al, 2017;Eriksen & Ditrich, 2015;Hartfiel et al, 2012).…”

Funeral and Mortuary Operators: The Role of Stigma, Incivility, Work Meaningfulness and Work–Family Relation to Explain Occupational Burnout

“…Among the few studies that have been interested in assessing the quality of working life of this peculiar working population, only a small number have assessed how the psychosocial factors of the funeral context can specifically impact burnout levels [ 8 ]. This is surprising since, among other mental health issues such as depression, death anxiety and post- and secondary-traumatic stress disorder that have been more extensively analyzed [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ], funeral and mortuary workers, due to their work environment, are more likely to suffer from compassion fatigue and burnout [ 15 , 16 , 17 ], which in turn may leave to deleterious consequences for their health-related behaviors and impaired work ability [ 1 , 15 ].…”

Secondary Traumatic Stress in Italian Police Officers: The Role of Job Demands and Job Resources

“…Some studies show that organizational stressors have a higher impact on PTSD than operational stressors (Maguen et al, 2009). The consequences of organizational demands could have an impact on the development of STS in POs as well as in other workers (Colombo et al, 2019). An investigation conducted by Sharma (2013) showed that hostile relationships between supervisors and workers negatively affect work performance, stress perception and its consequences; these findings were consistent with previous research (Chopko, 2010;Shane, 2010;Yuan et al, 2011) that found that the management of potentially traumatic events leads to a decrease in psychological problems among traumatized POs.…”