RESOURCES FOR PREVENTING OR HEALING SECONDARY TRAUMA
Workshop Related to the CAREgivers Film
Vic Compher, LCSW
Because of professional caregivers’ frequent or dramatic exposures to their clients’/ patients’ emotional or physical traumas or deaths, secondary trauma (aka compassion fatigue or vicarious trauma) often occurs. Grief, self-blame, and lack of organizational or community support can intensify symptoms and problems on the job. This supportive workshop assists professional caregivers, including supervisors and administrators, to recognize and to address symptoms of secondary trauma. Workshop participants learn creative ways to enhance self-care and to create intentional structures of peer and organizational support that are appropriate to the culture of the agency.
Contact – Vic Compher, LCSW, 267-266-0842 or viccompher@comcast.net
Institutes / Consultative Services / Comprehensive Training
“Take Care Philadelphia” at www.TakeCarePHL.org is a comprehensive website on STS and Staff resilience created by the Philadelphia ACEs Taskforce
This very user friendly website provides significant resources which are located throughout the US and offer support and guidance to professional caregivers. Links to these institutes and programs are listed. Highly recommended! Note: also in the “About section” the role of CAREgivers film as a stimulus for program and policy development is described, including a proposition of the Philadelphia City Council to OSHA to recognize STS as an “occupational hazard” and to provide standards for mitigation in the workplace.
Sandra Bloom, M.D. – The Sanctuary Model Website
Dr. Sandra L. Bloom is a Board-Certified psychiatrist, author, and founder of the Sanctuary programs. The Sanctuary Model® represents a theory-based, trauma-informed, evidence-supported, whole culture approach that has a clear and structured methodology for creating or changing an organizational culture. The objective of such a change is to more effectively provide a cohesive context within which healing from psychological and socially traumatic experiences can be addressed. Staff receive ongoing help with secondary trauma.
Charles R. Figley, PhD and Kathleen Regan Figley, DMin. – Figley Institute Website
Dr. Charles Figley is a professor of social work and psychology. He is the author of more than 200 scholarly works including 19 books. Most have focused on stress and the emotional cost of caring, especially secondary trauma/ compassion fatigue. The mission of the Figley Institute is to alleviate human suffering which results from traumatic life experiences by providing laypersons and professionals with high quality traumatology resources and training.
Lara Krawchuk—MSW, LCSW, MPH—Healing Concepts, LLC Contact – healing.concepts@yahoo.com
Lara Krawchuk is a professor, wellness educator and owner of Healing Concepts LLC. She provides a variety of consultative and meaningful workshop experiences pertaining to loss, grief and secondary trauma, including, a workshop called: “When Helping Hurts: A Day of Healing for Helping Professionals”, described as follows:
“Witnessing intense client pain, navigating stressful workplaces, and managing hectic personal lives places helping professionals at risk for compassion fatigue and burnout. Healing Concepts, LLC offers a unique, healing retreat to review the root causes of compassion fatigue and practice creative self-care techniques including; healing journaling, mindful walking, guided imagery, healing rituals and self-care planning.”
Leslie Lieberman—MSW –Multiplying Connections
Leslie Lieberman is the director of Multiplying Connections, which provides trauma-informed training to a wide array of educational and human services for children and families. Addressing Secondary Trauma is intrinsic to these training programs.
Diane Wagenhals, M.ED—The Institute of Family Professionals, Lakeside Educational Network
Diane Wagenhals is program director of The Institute for Family Professionals which provides 30 different training courses and workshops supportive of school teachers and helping professionals in a variety of family and child oriented human services. IFP receives regular requests to provide workshops, seminars, keynote addresses and training at conferences in the Northeastern United States.
John Weaver, LCSW – Disaster Mental Health Website
John Weaver is a clinical social worker, author, crisis intervention consultant, and trainer from Nazareth, Pennsylvania, USA. Since 1991, he’s been actively involved as a volunteer relief worker and instructor with the American Red Cross (ARC) Disaster Mental Health (DMH) team. He has assisted at several mass-casualty disasters including service as Coordinator of the ARC AIR Team’s Family Assistance Center following the 9/11 terrorist incident that led to the crash of United Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA and then served as an Assistant Officer helping manage the larger World Trade Center relief operation in NY City. First posted in 1995, the page (plus the bibliography and selected links to other websites) provides lots of information about DMH concepts including: typical victim reactions to traumatic events; psychological first aid; disaster preparedness; self-care for relief workers; spirituality; and tips on working with sudden loss of loved ones, including a handout for the survivors. Much of the original information offered in the site was summarized from Weaver’s1995 book, Disasters: Mental Health Interventions. Along with the factual information, there is a pitch to help recruit more volunteer relief workers for ARC and some tips on how to do it.
Direct Support in Times of High Stress
SAMHSA Disaster Distress Helpline
DDH is the first national hotline dedicated to providing year-round disaster crisis counseling. This toll-free, multilingual, crisis support service is available 24/7 via telephone (1-800-985-5990) and SMS (text ‘TalkWithUs’ to 66746) to residents in the U.S. and its territories who are experiencing emotional distress related to natural or man-made disasters. Callers and texters are connected to trained and caring professionals from the closest crisis counseling center in the network. Helpline staff provides counseling and support, including information on common stress reactions and healthy coping, as well as referrals to local disaster-related resources for follow-up care and support.
Apps
The Tactical Breather application can be used to gain control over physiological and psychological responses to stress. Through repetitive practice and training, anyone can learn to gain control of your heart rate, emotions, concentration, and other physiological and psychological responses to your body during stressful situations.
Psychological First Aid (PFA) Mobil
This app from The National Child Traumatic Stress Network can assist responders who provide PFA to adults, families, and children. Materials are adapted from the Psychological First Aid Field Operations Guide (2nd Edition). PFA Mobile™ allows responders to: match PFA interventions to specific stress reactions of survivors; hear mentor tips for applying PFA in the field; self-assess to determine their readiness to conduct PFA; and assess / track survivors’ needs—simplifying data collection and making referrals
This app from the National Center for PTSD can help you learn about and manage symptoms that often occur after trauma. Features include: reliable information on PTSD and treatments that work; tools for screening and tracking your symptoms and convenient, easy-to-use tools to help you handle stress symptoms.
