Vicarious Trauma in Child Welfare Workers: A Study of Organizational Interventions
Workforce shortages in child welfare are chronic. Ineffective recruitment and high turnover have plagued organizations, creating a workforce crisis. Annual turnover rates are between 23 and 60 percent, and the national average length of employment is less than two years. This crisis has serious implications for the wellbeing of the children, families, and communities served. Recent studies have correlated workforce turnover to outcomes, particularly an increased length of time children remain in care.
The organizational challenge of recruiting and retaining workers carries serious implications for the wellbeing of child welfare workers. They have greater levels of distress from their work, and are exposed to more traumatic material than the general population of social workers. The distress a worker experiences from engaging with trauma survivors is referred to as vicarious trauma (VT), a transformation in the worker’s inner experience resulting from empathetic engagement with clients’ traumatic experiences.
This study explored organizational approaches to addressing VT in child welfare workers. The researchers sought to answer the following questions: How does the leadership of child welfare organizations conceptualize VT and its connection to worker burnout and turnover? What are child welfare organizations doing to address VT among their workers? How do child welfare organizations respond to critical incidents that may contribute to VT among their workers?
METHODS:
This study utilized phenomenological qualitative interviews with public child welfare organization directors, and/or their designees. Purposive sampling was used to find participants representative of the ten regions designated by the Children’s Bureau. The researchers approached directors from the states in each region until one agreed to participate in the study. A total of six interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview schedule. Transcriptions of taped interviews were subjected to content analysis to draw out themes.
RESULTS:
The study showed a need for training on the effect of VT among child welfare workers, the need for organizational, in addition to individual responses to VT, and the importance of clinical supervision including the opportunity for workers to discuss traumatic events. Supervision, as currently offered, was shown to be inconsistent and problem-focused. Some organizations were in the beginning stages of addressing VT as a component of implementing a trauma-informed model for client services. Leaders discussed their plans for addressing VT in the future, but acknowledged that resource shortages may hinder their ability to offer a full array of supports. Generally, VT was viewed as the worker’s problem; organizational responsibility in creating resources for addressing VT was not a consistent priority among the states participating in the study.
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS:
The main outcome of this study is that state child welfare organizations do not systematically address the effects of vicarious trauma on workers. This has implications for workforce health and the longevity of social workers in child welfare organizations. This study contributes to the field of social work by addressing workforce health issues stemming from engaging in child welfare work. It presents organizational strategies to address VT to improve service delivery and decrease worker distress.