Individual and Organisational Practices Addressing Social Workers’ Experiences of Vicarious Trauma

Abstract

Vicarious trauma is a predictable side effect of social work practice with growing evidence of its varied impact on individuals and workplaces. Organisations employing social workers do not always take a preventative or proactive approach to addressing vicarious trauma, often assuming the provision of supervision and encouraging worker self-care will be sufficient. This article argues that organisations should be encouraged to accept responsibility for addressing vicarious trauma as a work health and safety issue. A narrative literature review of studies and articles over the last 10 years is presented that identified individual or organisational strategies to reduce the risk of vicarious trauma. The authors encourage individual social workers, social work managers, and organisations employing social workers to consider their approach in light of these findings, as well as wish to encourage further research.

Keywords:

• vicarious trauma
• compassion fatigue
• organisational prevention and responsibility

Additional information

Simon Ashley-Binge is a Masters qualified Social Worker with a Masters in Business Administration who provides supervision and consultancy as part of his private social work practice.

Carolyn Cousins is a Social Worker with a Masters of Adult Educator who provides training and supervision as a private practitioner. She is also the Convener of the Clinical Division of the Australian College of Social Work. Correspondence to: Carolyn Cousins, 4276, East Gosford, NSW, 2251, Australia. Email: [email protected]