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

Abstract

Background: Organizations assisting refugees are over burdened with the Syrian humanitarian catastrophe and encounter diverse difficulties facing the consequences of this massive displacement. Aid-workers experience the horrors of war through their efforts to alleviate suffering of Syrian refugees. Objective: This study of Syrian refugee aid-workers in Jordan examined work-stressors identified as secondary traumatic stress (STS), number of refugees assisted, worker feelings towards the organization, and their associations to PTSD-symptoms, wellbeing and intimacy. It also examined whether self-differentiation, physical health, and physical pain were associated with these variables. Method: Syrian refugee aid-workers (N = 317) in Jordan's NGOs were surveyed. Univariate statistics and structural equation modeling (SEM) were utilized to test study hypotheses. Results: Increased STS was associated with lower self-differentiation, decreased physical health and increased physical pain, as well as elevated PTSD-symptoms and decreased intimacy. Decreased connection to the NGO was associated with lower self-differentiation, decreased physical health, increased physical pain, and with decreased intimacy and wellbeing. Lower self-differentiation was associated with increased PTSD-symptoms, decreased wellbeing and intimacy. Elevated physical pain was associated with increased PTSDsymptoms, and decreased wellbeing. Diverse mediation effects of physical health, physical pain and self-differentiation were found among the study's variables. Conclusions: Aid-workers who assist refugees were at risk of physical and mental sequelae as well as suffering from degraded self-differentiation, intimacy and wellbeing. Organizations need to develop prevention policies and tailor interventions to better support their aid-workers while operating in such stressful fieldwork.

Manzuaat wa Musharadat, Uprooted and Scattered: Refugee Women Escape Journey and the Longing to Return to Syria

“…Though Jordan has generously hosted the Syrian refugees and humanitarian organizations had the best intentions to provide their needs, many refugees are still facing challenges ( Rizkalla and Segal, 2019a , 2020 ), especially economically ( Miller and Rasmussen, 2017 ; Walton, 2018 ). For many women who enormously struggle on a daily basis in Jordan, the one thing that they aspired for and gave them hope to survive, regardless of how tangible the aspiration was—they all longed to return home—to Syria.…”

“…Millions were forcibly displaced, lost their properties and social support systems ( Jabbar and Zaza, 2014 ; Balcilar and Nugent, 2019 ). They witnessed and experienced traumatic events including combat situations, killings, hunger, physical and sexual assault, as well as torture, and forced separation from family, friends, and communities ( Panter-Brick et al, 2018 ; Rizkalla and Segal, 2018 , 2019a ). In search of safety, they fled to the neighboring countries and beyond.…”

Approach Coping Mitigates Distress of COVID-19 Isolation for Young Men With Low Well-Being in a Sample of 1,749 Youth From Australia and the USA

“…Well-being can be defined as a combination of both subjective and psychological well-being; for instance, happiness, life satisfaction, positive relations with others, and goal-directed behavior (12). Research has reliably shown an increase in negative symptoms such as stress and anxiety for people with low well-being (13)(14)(15)(16)(17). Recent studies investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental well-being have corroborated that adults who reported higher well-being as the lockdown continued exhibited reduced psychiatric symptoms (18) and improved overall work performance (19).…”

Isolation, self-blame and perceived invalidation in aid personnel: identifying humanitarian-specific distress using the PostAID/Q

“…Humanitarian personnel are particularly susceptible to secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue or vicarious traumatization (Figley, 1995(Figley, , 1998McCann & Pearlman, 1990;Pearlman & Saakvitne, 1995). Such indirect exposure to a traumatic event can result in changes to memory systems, and prior views of self and the world (Figley, 1995;McCann and Pearlman 1990;Pearlman and Saakvitne 1995).…”