How to improve organisational staff support? Suggestions from humanitarian workers in South Sudan

Abstract

Humanitarian workers experience high symptom burdens of common mental health problems. This requires action from the organisations they are employed with. However, many studies have documented continuing weaknesses in organisational staff support, as well as disparities in access to the services for national and international staff. Systematic data capturing suggestions from humanitarian workers on how to tackle this situation within a specific crisis setting is rarely available. This study addresses this gap through qualitative content analysis of the suggestions from the 210 humanitarian workers based in South Sudan collected through an online survey in 2017. Five major themes emerged regarding proposed improvements: 'Competitive benefit and salary packages'; 'internal work climate and organisational culture'; 'equality within and between organisations'; 'skill enhancement and personal development' and 'physical safety and security'. For both national and international staff, improved access to psychosocial support services was the most frequent proposal. Apart from this suggestion, their top priorities for improvement of staff support differed greatly. National staff emphasised improvements related to training and greater equality between employees. International staff emphasised improvements related to time off and team cohesion. Findings provide a clear case for organisations to assess their services and offer a potential framework to inform future interventions that better address the priorities of the humanitarian community as a whole.

Caring for the mental health of humanitarian volunteers in traumatic contexts: the importance of organisational support

“…Caring for Volunteers: IFRC PS Centre, 2012) is important to not only mitigate the effects of stress and traumatic exposure on volunteers (Okanoya et al, 2015), but also to bring the trust that organizations are making their best efforts to protect their volunteers. A similar conclusion from humanitarian paid staff literature suggested their needs for equality, self-enhancement, and improving access to psychosocial support in order to feel better supported by their organizations (Strohmeier, Scholte, & Ager, 2019).…”

Dealing with difficult choices: a qualitative study of experiences and consequences of moral challenges among disaster healthcare responders

“…Although several alarming reports have emphasized the negative consequences of moral distress among responders, the burden of moral distress within this population is still poorly understood [ 26 ]. Psychological distress and burnout are reported as frequent consequences among responders and affect not only individuals but also the quality of care that they provide [ 27 ]. Furthermore, sick leave and high dropout rates among healthcare personnel result in high costs for society [ 26 , 28 ].…”

Factors associated with common mental health problems of humanitarian workers in South Sudan

“…Staff support is largely insufficient and underfunded and awareness building among donors is needed to ensure appropriate allocation of funds [ 37 ]. This is also acutely the case for South Sudan where humanitarian workers face a unique crisis [ 38 ], staff support is in need of improvement [ 39 ], and, to the best of our knowledge, no scientific research on the mental health of humanitarian workers (national and international staff, consultants, United Nations [UN] Volunteers) has previously been undertaken.…”