Secondary Traumatic Stress In Social Work

"Social workers are increasingly being called on to assist survivors of childhood abuse, domestic violence, violent crime, disasters, and war and terrorism," (Bride). Because social workers are being introduced to more stressful situations, they are gaining more responsibilities. Social workers aim to help people who struggle with challenges in their everyday lives. They also protect at risk children and support low income families in need of assistance. Some social workers diagnose and help treat mental, behavioral, and emotional issues. Although social workers’ goal is to assist others with stressful situation, they find themselves coping with secondary traumatic stress. Secondary traumatic stress (STS) can be described as stress from close

"For example, the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children (TLC) employs treatment strategies in which children may share their trauma by drawing intimate details of their experience," (Whitfield, Kanter). This method helps the children heal, but it puts a visual aid to the stories which makes the helping professionals supporting them more at risk to STS (Whitfield, Kanter). "STS reactions have been reported by mental health social workers who have experienced client suicidal behavior (CSB)," (Ting, Jacobson, Sanders). "CSB has been noted as one of the most stressful experiences in the career of mental health professionals," (Ting, Jacobson, Sanders). Working with family violence and sexual assault victims are also very stressful. STS has various symptoms ranging from minor to severe. Hypervigilance, which is accompanied with intense anxiety, is one symptom of STS. In hypervigilance, one would scan their surrounding to search for certain sights, sounds, people, behaviors, smells, or anything that they could perceive to be a potential threat. This could lead to exhaustion, and some victims of STS have been reported to have chronic exhaustion. This lack of sleep can lead to the victim of STS to be unable to embrace complexities of their work.

They can talk with their co-workers and build a strong support group within their organization. Workers within an organization that helps assist traumatized victims can come together and form self-care groups. The care groups can practice yoga or meditation to get their mind off of their work. "It is critical that social workers who work with trauma victims know how to balance of personal and professional activities," (Whitfield, Kantar). They should monitor their own emotional and cognitive states. An easy way to do this is by using either an informal or formal self-report