Caring for the HealersFostering Healthcare Providers’ Post-traumatic Growth in Disaster Areas: Proposed Additional Core Competencies in Trauma-Impact Management
Section snippets
Wounded Healers
“Long ago, in ancient Greece, the great hero god Heracles was invited to the cave of the centaur Pholos. Chiron, a wise and beneficent centaur and a great master of healing, was also present. As a token of appreciation and hospitality, Heracles brought a flask of heady wine to the gathering. The rich, fragrant liquid attracted other centaurs who, unaccustomed to wine, became drunk and then began to fight. In the ensuing melee Chiron was struck in the knee by an arrow shot by Heracles …
Trauma Exposure and Healthcare
The ability to disrupt or simply threaten groups of individuals, entire populations, and institutions through war, conventional terrorism, bioterrorism, natural disasters, man-made technological disasters, or other large-scale traumatic events has transformed the fields of traumatology, public health, public and military policy, medical training, health administration, and disaster preparedness. Our tendency is to prioritize and address tangible deficiencies in structure, procedures, or
Vicarious Traumatization Following Hurricane Katrina
During and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, medical personnel across the Gulf Coast region in general, and New Orleans especially, struggled to provide healthcare to a frightened population while adapting to critical shortages in staff and medicines as well as basic supplies, including food and water. Healthcare workers who sought counseling services following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struggled with a confluence of emotions. They expressed deep anger at the failures of many systems upon
Post-traumatic Growth
From a resilience-model perspective, what are often neglected, if not unrecognized, are the many potentially positive factors that can arise within the individual after surviving a disaster. The scientific concept of resilience within trauma dates back to the 1960s. Caplan20 stated that a fundamental assumption in crisis theory is the potential for growth from a negative life experience. Since the publication of Caplan’s work, a growing number of contemporary theorists and clinicians have made
Looking Ahead: Mitigation and Preparedness
Successful strategies that foster and support posttraumatic growth and resiliency among healthcare providers consider STS as an unavoidable side effect of working with trauma.25 Primary, secondary, and tertiary strategies for reducing STS can fall under 3 categories:
- •
Those aimed at the individual practitioner, both personally and professionally;
- •
Those aimed at the organization;
- •
Those aimed at the systems of care and policy.
For trauma-impact management to be effective, it must be recognized and
Conclusions
Healthcare providers, by the nature of their work, are called upon to assist traumatized victims. STS is an unavoidable consequence of trauma and disaster work. In addition to the indirect exposure to trauma characteristic of STS, providers assisting in mass disasters may be directly traumatized themselves. However, disasters, like other traumas, harbor within themselves the seeds of growth and positive change. There is increasing interest in this potential for posttraumatic growth and the ways
References (40)
Oklahoma City bombing: exacerbation of symptoms in veterans with PTSD
Arch Psychiatr Nurs
(1996)- et al.
Mental health and recovery in the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
JAMA
(2006) The long road home: rebuilding public inpatient psychiatric services in post-Katrina New Orleans
Psychiatr Serv
(2008)- et al.
Vicarious traumatization: a framework for understanding the psychological effects of working with victims
J Trauma Stress
(1990) - et al.
Coping, functioning, and adjustment of rescue workers after the Oklahoma City bombing
J Trauma Stress
(2002) Two years after Katrina: a survey of mental health and addiction providers in New Orleans and Baton Rouge
(2007)The diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders,
(2000)Helping traumatized families
(1989)- et al.
Vicarious traumatization: potential hazards and interventions for disaster and trauma workers
Prehosp Disast Med
(2004)
Preventing vicarious trauma: what counselors should know when working with trauma survivors
J Couns Dev
Treating compassion fatigue
Secondary traumatic stress effects of working with survivors of criminal victimization
J Trauma Stress
Generic dimensions of trauma response. International Consortium for Psychosocial Preparedness of Children and Families for Terrorism
Posttraumatic stress disorder and identification in disaster workers
Am J Psychiatry
After the fall
JEMS
Mental illness and suicidality after Hurricane Katrina
Bull World Health Organ
After the storm: health care infrastructure in post-Katrina New Orleans
N Engl J Med
Post-traumatic responses in spouse/significant others of disaster workers
Principles of preventive psychiatry
Cited by (12)
Tend and befriend in the intensive care unit
2012, Critical Care NurseCitation Excerpt :Such experiences have been recorded among survivors of cancer and war as well as other traumas.44-47 Calderon-Abbo and colleagues48 have suggested that measures can be taken to foster posttraumatic growth among health care providers in areas of extreme stress such as the planning of preventive and post-traumatic interventions for care-givers during disaster planning. These authors suggest primary, secondary, and tertiary strategies to reduce stress.
Rape Crisis Counseling: Trauma Contagion and Supervision
2021, Journal of Interpersonal ViolenceWho helps the helper? Differentiation of self as an indicator for resisting vicarious traumatization
2018, Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and PolicyConsidering developmental concepts from attachment theory to inform graduate student training in global trauma and disaster psychology
2018, International Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation