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The Best Little Vicarious Trauma Prevention Program in Tennessee

Terri East, Ed.S. (doctoral student U of Memphis) & Richard James, Ph.D.

Educational Psychology and Research

The University of Memphis

100 Ball Hall

Memphis, Tennessee 38152

The Carl Perkins Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse is a large multi-county child welfare program that targets physical and sexual abuse in children. It is a premier program that has won many awards and accolades and generates millions of dollars in grants and benevolent giving. With over forty case workers employed, the Perkins Center operates in eleven counties in West Tennessee, with nine satellite sites. It is a model of how an independent agency ought to operate.

During a workshop on Vicarious Traumatization these workers were given the following measures: The Impact of Events Scale which measures avoidance and intrusion criteria for PTSD, the LA Symptoms Checklist which measures DSM-IV criteria for PTSD along with a total Distress score, and the Human Services Survey (which is the Revised Maslach Burnout Inventory) that measures emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment. The results for the workers were nothing short of phenomenal. Only three workers met the criteria for a PTSD diagnosis (one worker was pregnant at the time of administration which may have influenced her results). The rest of the respondents had scores that typically fell below the mean of national norms for workers engaged in similar occupations. The degree and kind of vicarious traumatization and burnout indicators these instruments measure were far below what should be expected to occur statistically in an organization that does this kind of intensive emotional work.

We were curious as to why this was so, which led to a subsequent workshop with the directors and staff of the Perkins Center. In that workshop we examined three areas that can profoundly impact burnout and vicarious traumatization: Intrapersonal, interpersonal, and institutional support mechanisms. Interestingly enough, when the case workers were separated into small groups and were given the opportunity to discuss these support mechanisms with the authors, each group basically generated the same explanations for their success in preventing vicarious traumatization and burnout.

Respondents identified intrapersonal factors that did not relate to their work environment, for example hot baths and aromatherapy, exercise, and spiritual connectedness. Because they had been trained in burnout prevention by the center, almost to a person, every staff member practiced some kind of systematic mental/physical health regimen. Interpersonal factors included such things as a strong coworker and supervisor network for consultation or venting, strong support at home, and a genuine sense of community and feeling of ownership within the organization. Workers reported a strong sense of mission, but also indicated that they could clearly separate home from work issues.

Among the institutional factors mentioned were reasonable case loads, competitive salaries and benefits, strict adherence to a forty-hour work week wherein overtime was traded out as comp time, extensive networking with other agencies, and appropriate and abundant resources relating to the needs of the children served. The director and area coordinators of this organization make burnout prevention a number one priority. Besides being sure that there staff has the best financial and logistical support they can offer, the supervisors are highly sensitive to the emotional needs of the staff. In that regard, weekly individual staffing sessions are held with immediate supervisors, monthly meetings are held with combined staffs, and constant vigilance and support is provided for workers who are experiencing high emotional impact situations.

The constant refrain from workers was: "This place cares about me, looks out after me, and I care about and look out after this place." From small intermittent reinforcers such as giving workers toy tops, "Your tops in our book" to taking a group of workers from a satellite office for a message the overriding philosophy of the organization is that our workers count and are a number one priority. While the institution does all of this preventive work, probably their greatest asset is in hiring high quality, bright, energetic, creative, and motivated workers in the first place. A great deal of care is taken in the selection process. As a result, highly resilient as opposed to emotionally fragile workers are the norm for this organization.