Ensuring an Attuned Workforce: Individual and Systemic Factors Impacting Trauma Professionals

Abstract

While vicarious trauma from hearing traumatic material when working with clients has long been recognised, the concept that much vicarious trauma stems from systemic challenges, and work conditions, is a more recent development. There has been a willingness to recognise the toll on individuals of client stories, however this has allowed organisations to minimise other aspects of the work that are also impactful. Never has this been truer than in the last two years with the Covid-19 pandemic, when workers have experienced their own sense of risk at work, alongside a sense of possible expendability from their organisations. Workers may have felt obliged to keep meeting client need, whilst managing their own personal distress or worry. The article explores areas that contribute to vicarious, work-related trauma, other than hearing the narratives of those who have experienced trauma themselves. Individual and organisational practices, such as organisational culture; variability of the workload; conditions of the work environment; access to professional development; and the provision of quality supervision. The impact of each will be considered, with the aim not just to avoid vicarious trauma or burnout, but to proactively address issues that may impair the functioning of an integrated and fully cognisant professional.