Indirect trauma is deeply affecting Nova Scotian social workers

INDIRECT TRAUMA IS DEEPLY AFFECTING NOVA SCOTIAN SOCIAL WORKERS

AUTHOR: LAURIE OGILVIE

The New Democratic Party, social workers, and the Canadian Association of Social Workers have all reported social workers are experiencing burnout, are overworked, and have been affected by their professional interaction with trauma.

Despite this, little scholarship has been put towards researching indirect trauma and how it impacts social workers in Canada, though it is part of our everyday working lives.

Over the summer of 2018, I had the opportunity to join the Nova Scotia College of Social Workers as their summer student and began exploring these complex phenomena.

We began with defining what the different types of indirect trauma are – focusing on vicarious trauma, and how can social workers cope with it within the context of current working conditions – and found out quickly how little information and research is available about the relation between Canadian social workers, vicarious trauma, coping, and resilience.

Our project focused on vicarious trauma and revealed that we need to manage social workers’ exposure to indirect trauma, through coping, support, and resilience.

But who is responsible for managing our relationship with trauma? Moreover, what are the differences between all these types? Isn’t self-care enough to buffer trauma? The research process revealed these questions, and we attempted to find answers for them.

We engaged NSCSW members to complete a survey over the summer to help answer what knowledge social workers have of vicarious trauma, self-care, and support. Participants were explicitly asked about how to manage vicarious trauma, what could improve self-care and resilience, and who is responsible for managing self-care and resilience.

What was revealed by social workers across Nova Scotia is an apparent lack of workplace, and managerial support – only 21.9 per cent of respondents feel supported in their workplaces.

Social workers cited the devaluation of our profession, and neoliberal management practices and policy causing a workplace culture of urgency, technocratic, and socially unjust working conditions. Experiences listed include constant pressure to answer work-related emails outside of working hours, non-existence knowledge of trauma’s impact on social workers, and blaming social workers when experiencing indirect trauma.

A clinical social worker participant pointed to a disconnection between the policy and managerial techniques of the workplace, and the experiences and knowledge of socialworkers, clients, and other workers.

Another social worker working in a hospital stated that the absence of a social justice lens among other co-workers resulted in those co-workers blaming their clients for their situations.

Workplaces with managerial and oppressive policies contribute to social workers experiencing indirect trauma, but social workers are attempting to fight back with self-care, social supports, and advocacy.

Self-care is critical to buffering the erosive effects of trauma and social workers accomplish this through a range of behaviours that maintain our health. These behaviours can include healthy eating, sleep, and physical activity, self-expressive hobbies, art, cookery, spiritual yoga, church, mindfulness, etc.

Although survey results showed social workers lack a clear and concise definition of self-care, it is clear they are practicing it – 40.8 per cent reported practising self-care every day.

Results also revealed social support continues to be critical. Many participants stated how crucial it was to reflect with other social workers – 25.2 per cent of respondents cited social support as a key component to managing vicarious trauma.

Survey participants believed the impact of indirect trauma on social workers could be decreased by an active college of social workers, the integration of education opportunities, and adding self-care as part of the license renewal process while increasing advocacy about the working conditions social workers face. Better wages, lower caseloads, more workers, and having management understand the impact of vicarious trauma were also believed to be helpful.

A worrying trend is how social workers areblaming themselves for being impacted bytrauma, a lack of support, and poor management.Social workers said they are expected to copewithout workplace supports. Instead they areexpected to access social support on their own,but they do not have enough time to do so.

Stigma from management and coworkers was experienced by some social workers seeking help from trauma, who often hid their experiences from their workplaces. When asked who is responsible for managing vicarious trauma and resilience, 44.7 per cent reported themselves as solely responsible.

We need to remind both new and current social workers that vicarious trauma is part of the working conditions, and the management of its impact – along with that of other forms of indirect trauma – are the responsibility of the employer, the employee, and the College.

We must act to ensure we are educated, practice self-care, and engage social supports; but we equally need the support of our managers, coworkers, and workplaces – along with the College – to advocate and fight for traumainformed, supportive workplaces, higher wages, and educational opportunities.

This study is limited in its size, but it offers us a glimpse into the conditions social workers are facing in Nova Scotia. Many social workers do not feel they are supported in their workplaces, while they continue to work with high caseloads, unhealthy managerial support, and lacking access to educational opportunities about trauma, coping, and resilience.

Social workers are still using their skills to cope with the working conditions, but are being left to flounder without proper support and knowledge. The College has an opportunity to create substantive change for Nova Scotia social workers and has continued to re-professionalize social workers, laying a foundation for new advocacy addressing impacts of trauma on social workers, and the nature of social work.

LAURIE OGILVIE is a Bachelor of Social Work student at Dalhousie University, and was NSCSW’s research summer student in 2018. He’s currently completing his practicum at the office of Lisa Roberts, MLA Halifax-Needham, and works with the College on various projects.