UGA Logo UGA Office of Public Affairs top bar image UGA Home
Columns faculty staff newspaper News Service
Contact Us
Text-Only
top bar image
SEARCH
  Columns   UGA    
 
  january 16, 2007
  In this issue
  News
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  Around Academe
  News to Use
  Giving Back
  Go Figure
  Digest
  UGA Guide
  Kudos
  Faculty Profile
  Questions&Answers
  Weekly Reader
  Cybersights
  Bulletin Board
 
  Back Issues
  Publication Dates
  Contact Us

campus newS


Brian Bride, an assistant professor in UGA’s School of Social Work, said his study of secondary traumatic stress disorder is the first to examine the phenomenon in a broad sample of social workers. (Photo by Peter Frey)

Indirect victims
Study finds that social workers are twice as likely as others to experience post-traumatic stress
By Sam Fahmy
sfahmy@uga.edu
In the wake of national disasters such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina as well as traumas such as sexual assault, social workers are among the first to help victims heal.

But a first-of-its-kind study by a researcher in the university’s School of Social Work finds that repeatedly hearing the stories of trauma victims doubles the risk of social workers themselves experiencing post-­traumatic stress disorder.

In a study published in the January issue of the journal Social Work, assistant professor Brian Bride finds that while 7.8 percent of the general population experience PTSD over a lifetime, 15 percent of the social workers surveyed met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD within the week prior to being surveyed.

“In addition to working with disaster victims, social workers hear from children who have been sexually abused, victims of incest, rape, and people who have experienced the horrors of combat and community violence,” Bride said. “Hearing these stories over and over can produce thoughts and images that can be traumatic.”

The phenomenon of being indirectly victimized by trauma, known as secondary traumatic stress disorder, has only recently gained the attention of researchers. It was first recognized a decade ago in spouses of war veterans and family members of holocaust survivors. Bride said his study is the first to examine the phenomenon in a broad sample of social workers.

He surveyed nearly 300 practicing social workers in fields such as mental health and substance abuse, health care, child welfare and school social work and found that: 40 percent thought about their work with traumatized clients without intending to; 22 percent reported feeling detached from others; 26 percent felt emotionally numb; 28 percent had a sense of foreshortened future; 27 percent reported irritability; and 28 percent reported concentration difficulties.

PTSD is a disorder characterized by symptoms including repeated and unwanted memories of the event, avoidance responses such as emotional numbness, and so-called arousal responses such as hypervigilance or difficulty concentrating. Bride’s study found that 55 percent of those surveyed met one diagnostic criteria, 20 percent met two criteria and
15 percent met the three criteria necessary for a diagnosis of PTSD. Bride said that although rates of secondary traumatic stress are significant among social workers, awareness of the disorder among professionals is low.

“Social workers may hear about burnout and they may hear about self care,” Bride said. “But they’re not hearing about secondary post traumatic stress disorder.”

He recommends that colleges and universities educate social work students on how to minimize the risk of secondary traumatic stress. Bride also urges employers to provide continuing education on the subject and to offer appropriate workloads, support, time off and mental health insurance.

People enter helping professions such as social work because they want to make a difference, Bride said, but he warns that secondary traumatic stress has the potential to reduce the quality of care social workers provide and may ultimately drive people from the profession.

“We suspect that people are leaving social work because of this,” he said.
 


Columns is produced by the UGA News Service, a unit of UGA Public Affairs.
286 Oconee St., Ste. 200N, Athens, GA 30602-1999
Juliett Dinkins (jdinkins@uga.edu): editor (706) 542-8017,
Janet Beckley (jbeckley@uga.edu): art director (706) 542-8170, Peter Frey (pfrey@uga.edu): photo editor (706) 542-8086,
Matthew Weeks (mweeks@uga.edu): senior reporter (706) 542-8024, Sara Freeland (freeland@uga.edu): reporter (706) 542-8077
Questions or comments should be directed to columns@uga.edu

Back Issues | Publication Dates | Subscribe to Columns | Contact Us | Text-only Version

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2008-2009 University of Georgia. All rights reserved
The University of Georgia • Athens, GA 30602 | UGA Directory Assistance 706/542-3000
UGA Home | UGA Today | Public Affairs Directory