This dissertation is made up of three distinct parts: 1) A comprehensive, structured literature review 2) a mixed-methods descriptive study and 3) an inductive thematic qualitative analysis. The objective of this dissertation is to explore the concepts of compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction and burnout as they relate to the practices of narrative medicine among expatriate humanitarian aid workers. Data collected for this research focuses on expatriate healthcare workers who provided direct patient care during the 2013-2016 Ebola response in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Findings from these studies support the growing body of evidence and discussion regarding psychosocial support of healthcare workers in humanitarian contexts. To the extent that global health is public health (Fried, 2010), results from this dissertation will contribute guidance in the understanding and management of aid workers in contexts beyond the Ebola response.

This study´s overarching objective analyzed the intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic, its direct impacts of disease and indirect impacts of related containment measures, and impact on the mental and psychosocial health of health workers and people from the wider population in Luzon, in the Philippines. This study focused on the Philippines, an LMIC setting in Southeast Asia, where many remained at-risk for exposure to infectious disease risks associated with COVID-19, and other conditions provoking poor mental and psychosocial health outcomes. This study included a focus on mental health, going beyond only its clinically oriented and severe health outcomes, and to also include psychosocial health to acknowledge and underscore the importance of support systems and relational, non-clinical aspects related to human well-being. This study first inquired with the emerging, peer-reviewed research literature, and then examined two sets of perspectives to meet its overarching objective: the Filipino health practitioner workforce, and the broader Filipino community in Luzon. Concretely, the first paper examined and evaluated the literature at the intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic and mental and psychosocial health in the Philippines. It used a scoping review method on peer-reviewed literature first regarding three Southeast Asian LMIC settings to identify, from a total of 405 references, 76 articles specifically about the Philippines. This review was guided by the Population(/Participants)/Concept/Context, or PCC-model, and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews, or PRISMA-ScR. The second paper examined health worker perspectives on mental and psychosocial health policy, services, and programming at various phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. This qualitative examination aimed to learn deeply about eight different health worker perspectives, using a constructivist epistemological orientation and guidance from grounded theory and thematic analysis in semi-structured, in-depth interviews with eight different health workers in the Philippines. The final and third paper examined community perspectives on mental and psychosocial health in urban and rural, provincial settings during various phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. This inductive qualitative work included semi-structured focus group interviews with 23 people from different urban and rural, provincial settings in the Luzon region of the Philippines, and had a constructivist epistemological orientation and leaned on guidance from grounded theory and thematic analysis to facilitate the communities´ voice and expression in this work.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Masters). / As the past decade has witnessed a growing interest in the nature, causes and management of stress reactions in emergency workers, the present study examined emergency workers' reactions to traumatic work related incidents. Furthermore, although Job Dissatisfaction and Increased levels of Turnover have been identified in literature and research on emergency workers as being behavioural manifestations of the traumatic stress associated with emergency work, the effect of occupational trauma on these variables has not been documented extensively in trauma literature or research. A second aim of the study was therefore to provide further insight into the effects of work related trauma on these constructs. Moreover, although literature on emergency workers has not documented the impact of occasional trauma on Job Involvement, the present study undertook to examine the effects of trauma on tnis construct. The study was considered to be exploratory in this regard. By examining how exposure to occupational trauma impacts on Job Satisfaction, Job involvement and Propensity to Leave, it was hoped that this will lead to a better understanding of the effects of occupational trauma and its implications for employees and organisations alike. One hundred full-time paramedics completed a self-report questionnaire. The questionnaire also included questions to obtain demographic variables as it has been documented that the relationship between exposure to traumatic events and the expression of distress is constructed by personal factors. In addition, qualitative data pertaining to the constructs under investigation was obtained from 30 paramedics. The reported symptoms revealed that 17% of the sample was suffering from rrso. Correlational analyses using a non-experimental, cross-sectional design, revealed a significant relationship between PTSD and Job Satisfaction. A non-significant relationship was found between PTSD and both Job Involvement and Propensity to Leave, Of the demographic variables measured, stepwise regression analysis. revealed that gender and previous exposure to trauma were the most efficient predictors of PTSD Content Analyses performed on the qualitative data indicated that paramedics were subjected to numerous job stressors which seemed to associated to Job Involvement and Propensity to Leave. The results of the study are discussed with respect of the literature reviewed and limitations and implications of these findings are discussed thereafter. Lastly implications of the present study for future research are presented. / Andrew Chakane 2018

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