Supporting Those Who Provide Support: Work-Related Resources and Secondary Traumatic Stress Among Victim Advocates

Beyond Victim Identification: A Practitioner's Guide to Designing a Youth Anti-Sex Trafficking Advocacy Program

Thousands of youth are sexually trafficked each year in the United States. In order to address this concern, anti-trafficking advocates often emphasize the importance of uniform screening protocols to assist with the identification of survivors. Unfortunately, an oft-overlooked component of sex trafficking identification is what to do once a victim has been identified, and how to best meet survivors' complex needs. In this article, the authors provide social work practitioners and other advocates with best practice guidelines for how to design and evaluate anti-sex trafficking advocacy programs for children and youth. These guidelines include considerations related to direct services with clients, community partnerships, and organizational capacity, as well as recommendations for how to begin and then evaluate programming. Regardless of the form selected for the program, all anti-sex trafficking programs should be designed to provide effective, client-centered follow-up and advocacy once a positive identification is made in the community. The recommendations included in this paper are based upon extant literature, the authors' practice experience with survivors, and insights from anti-sex trafficking program evaluations.

"Pouring From an Empty Cup": Manifestations, Drivers, and Protective Factors of Occupational Stress Among Healthcare Providers of Trauma-Informed Care

In the United States alone, 10 million people are affected by family and domestic violence (DV). DV survivors experience many forms of victimization, including physical, psychological, and sexual abuse resulting in trauma. The DV workforce, including healthcare providers, social workers, advocates, and other providers, utilize trauma-informed care in a variety of settings to help DV survivors heal and recover from their traumatic experiences. Given the intensity of DV work and occupational stressors associated with navigating complex survivor cases and systems of care, health and mental health professionals can experience burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary traumatic stress. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how professionals in the DV workforce, including healthcare and mental health professionals, experience and mitigate occupational stress. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted with DV professionals, who worked in medical settings like urban hospitals as well as DV shelters and rape crisis centers in Boston, MA. A semistructured interview guide was developed, and pilot tested and addressed the following topics including experiences of occupational stress, and mitigators of occupational stress. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Codes were organized into themes and subthemes, which were reviewed and refined during research team discussions. Risk factors of occupational stress included caseload quantity and intensity, workplace isolation, and length of time in the field. Protective factors spanned individual, interpersonal, and organizational level factors. Participants described various strategies for mitigating occupational stress, including training, supervision, and self-care. Findings from this study have the potential to inform policies and practices among healthcare organizations that support professionals in the DV workforce who work with DV survivors.

A Socioecological Approach to Understanding Secondary Trauma in Professionals Working with Survivors of Sex Trafficking: A Hierarchical Regression Analysis

Individuals who are trafficked for sex have high rates of trauma exposure prior to and while being trafficked; therefore, professionals who work with this population are potentially exposed to high levels of trauma details increasing their risk of developing secondary traumatic stress (STS). This study investigated the STS symptoms of professionals working with survivors of sex trafficking utilizing a socioecological framework to guide the design and analysis. An online survey was completed by 583 respondents from a broad range of organizational settings who completed measures tapping into STS symptoms, lifetime trauma exposures, history of being sex-trafficked, dose of direct and indirect trauma exposure at work, use of emotional and instrumental support to cope, state report cards on sex trafficking policies, and organizational-level practices toward being STS informed. STS scores among professionals working with survivors of sex trafficking were high, with those in child welfare settings reporting the highest levels of STS. Hierarchical regression analysis indicates higher STS was associated with variables at all levels of the socioecological model except the macrosystem, with fewer years of experience, a history of being sex trafficked, higher dose of indirect exposure, less use of emotional support, and lower organizational STS scores predictive of higher distress. Together, study findings indicate that STS is a significant concern in the anti-trafficking workforce and that a socioecological framework is useful for understanding STS impacts, highlighting the value of multiple response strategies across levels. This analysis suggests that organizational-level strategies to ameliorate/buffer impacts of occupation-related trauma exposure among these professionals can be especially impactful.

Keepers of Trauma: Rape Victim Advocates' Secondary Traumatic Stress, Burnout, and Coping Techniques

This qualitative research explores rape victim advocates' secondary traumatic stress (STS), burnout, and coping strategies. Data reveal that the hardest parts of advocates' work include feeling like they cannot help survivors, hearing survivors' stories, and seeing the failings of the CJ and legal systems. Most advocates (81%) experience STS, evident in emotional and behavioral responses. Most advocates (71%) confirm that #MeToo and coverage of sexual violence in the news, social media, or television contribute to their STS. Fewer advocates (34%) experience burnout, which is attributed to workload. Advocates cope by reaching out to others (colleagues, friends, and family) and exercising.

Compassion Fatigue Among the Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Assault Workforce: Enhancing Organizational Practice

Gaps in knowledge related to occupational stress among the intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual assault (SA) workforce remain. This study examined associations between key risk factors for occupational stress and compassion fatigue among a sample of IPV/SA service providers in the Southwestern United States (N = 520). Results of the hierarchical regression analysis identified microaggressions, age, recent life stress, direct practice, and workload as factors associated with compassion fatigue. The findings point to the importance of incorporating trauma-informed organizational approaches to address microaggressions, reduce workload, and support staff experiencing recent stress and providing direct services.