Vicarious Trauma Prevention: Your Agency’s Crisis Response and Resilience Building Program

Historically, the primary focus of vicarious trauma prevention has been placed on individual self-care efforts. However, developing body of research reveals that the most effective way to address and prevent vicarious trauma is through field and agency specific sound organizational processes, policies, and procedures which foster organizational culture of sustainability and vicarious trauma prevention.

The goal of numerous trauma agencies around the country is to develop robust and strategic vicarious trauma prevention planning, including customizable programming, implementations, and assessment. The outcome of which would be formal vicarious trauma prevention and intervention systems of care with practices, policies, and specifically based on agency’s unique characteristics, needs, culture, familiarity with the topic, approaches to subject, funding, etc.

Organizational vicarious trauma prevention programming can be divided in two distinct but interrelated categories: organizational vicarious trauma prevention, intervention, and crisis response; and organizational culture of vicarious resilience. Below are some concrete programming, implementation, and evaluation ideas for your agency.

I.   Organizational Vicarious Trauma Prevention, Intervention, and Crisis Response

1.     Identifying, measuring, or assessing the extent of vicarious trauma among staff/within organization itself (aka processes of post-traumatic reactivity) via assessments-focus groups, survey monkey, staff/leadership interviews; pre-existed assessment tools/and/or creating our own.

2.     Providing sufficient staff education to identify VT symptoms, interventions, and prevention specific to field/location.

3.     Establishing protocols and processes for normalizing and encouraging safe and supportive vicarious trauma symptoms disclosure.

4.     Establishing concrete triage routes for vicarious trauma crisis intervention and response.

5.     Collaborating with community service providers for affected staff to access help (ex.:mental health/substance misuse treatment).

6.     Allocating time and funding for staff to access prevention and intervention resources during work hours.

7.     Supervision and professional development strategies (reflective listening supervision, rational detachment training, departmental specific self-care, wellness, coverage).

8.     Establishing diverse caseload of clients in order to limit traumatic exposure of any one staff.

9.     Providing adequate training in trauma-specific and trauma-informed outreach, intake, and service delivery strategies, to increase staff’ sense of effectiveness.

II.               Organizational Culture Of Vicarious Resilience

1.     Identifying and establishing policies, activities, work/peer support groups for staff health, self-care, wellness, and resilience building strategies.

2.     Allocating and earmarking funding specific to this purpose.

3.     Assigning specific staff to be a leader/cheerleader for building vicarious resilience.

4.     Providing resilience trainings/meetings/encouragement/reminders for staff.

5.     Providing professional development, community cross-training opportunities.

6.     Creating work environments which facilitate staff bonding and emotional support of each other, as this limits emotional fatigue and depersonalization, and creates a greater sense of personal accomplishment (e.g.: a vicarious trauma prevention support group).

7.     Organizing, creating, participating in wellness conferences/events in your community to bring awareness, visibility to VT prevention and to solicit community support/wellness-related donations/funding.

8.     Creating field specific collaborations and task-forces to unite, empower, encourage, financially support each other and exchange successful professional development strategies.

About Olga Phoenix

Olga Phoenix, MPA, MA is an internationally recognized expert and speaker on the topics of Vicarious Trauma, Compassion Fatigue, Secondary Traumatic Stress, and Trauma-Informed Services, as well as personal and organizational cultures of Sustainability, Self-Care, and Wellness. Through her books, trainings, webinars, and keynotes Olga helped thousands of victim advocates, therapists, substance abuse counselors, law enforcement, criminal justice and medical professionals to find their way to full and thriving life, free of vicarious trauma.

Olga is a creator of the Self-Care Wheel, a comprehensive wellness and vicarious trauma prevention tool, translated in several languages, and widely used in United States and abroad. Her new book is based on the concept of Self-Care Wheel and entitled “Victim Advocate’s Guide to Wellness: Six Dimensions of Vicarious Trauma-Free Life.” It was published in September 2014 and has been incredibly well received by victim trauma professionals of various fields. Due to popular demand the book has been translated into Spanish in March 2015 and is available under the title “Guía De Bienestar del Defensor de Víctimas: Seis Dimensiones de la Vida Libre de Estrés Traumático Secundario” at all major online bookstores. Her new book, “Self-Care Wheel: Discovering Resilient Me” is scheduled for release in the Fall 2018. 

Olga Phoenix is a Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center Expert Consultant and Trainer on trauma-informed services and vicarious trauma prevention; a member of Training and Mentoring Team at National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence; as well as a member and speaker at Elite Speaker’s Bureau, Inc. She graduated with a Masters of Public Administration and Nonprofit Management from the University of South Florida, Masters of Arts in Women’s Studies from Florida Atlantic University, and is currently a Doctorate Candidate in East West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Olga lives in St. Petersburg, Florida.

For more information, training and technical assistance requests, and collaborations please contact me at olga@olgaphoenix.com or 561-923-0980. You may also visit my website at www.olgaphoenix.com.