As a result of working in high-risk situations, child protection workers are
often confronted by such traumatic incidents as the physical and sexual abuse of
children, serious neglect situations, and personal threats. The perception of how
workers deal with their emotional challenges has not received a great deal of
attention in the literature. To date, a phenomenological study focusing on the
descriptive experiences of child protection workers struggling with secondary
traumatic stress has not been published. This study attempts to rectify this, by
examining from a phenomenological perspective how secondary traumatic stress
(STS) experienced by child protection workers impacts their practice and
personal lives. This study found that child protection workers engaged in direct
practice will be exposed directly and indirectly to traumatic events through their
work with children and families and the risks of experiencing symptoms of STS
are almost a certainty for a child protection worker. Participants described the
day-to-day pressures of managing a caseload and dealing with traumatic events
or traumatized people. From their responses, three major categories emerged:
Professional Issues relating to case practice and effectiveness; the Personal
Impacts of child protection work on the way workers function, both on the job and
in their private lives; and Behavioral or Physical Changes experienced by child
protection workers. It is these categories that best illustrate the dramatic way
secondary trauma affects child protection workers as a whole. / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/3283 |
| Date | 06 May 2011 |
| Creators | Gough, Michael |
| Contributors | Artz, Sibylle |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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