Moving beyond self-care: Exploring the protective influence of interprofessional collaboration, leadership, and competency on secondary traumatic stress.

Abstract

Despite a growing field of knowledge related to the causes and correlates of secondary traumatic stress (STS), there is a dearth of research directly comparing STS across child welfare and mental health; rather, when the two are examined within the same study, it is often as part of a larger sample of “social workers,” which is not further differentiated during analysis (Bride, 2007). Furthermore, few studies consider the role of the macro- or mezzo-level environments, such as the influence of interprofessional collaboration or leadership on STS across child welfare (CW) and mental health (MH) populations. Thus, this study will use structural equation modeling to examine micro-, mezzo-, and macrolevel factors across public CW workers and mental health care providers serving children and families involved with the CW system in one small, rural, northeastern state. Results demonstrate significant and differential relationships between interprofessional collaboration and transformative leadership across CW and MH systems. The findings will provide guidance for differential prevention and intervention strategies across these helping professions.

Intersectoral violence prevention: the potential of public health–criminal justice partnerships

“…Other illustrations of public health–criminal justice partnerships focus on the nexus of physical health, mental health and criminal justice from the social and human services arena. For example, a recent study of mental health and child protection services in one location showed that organizational factors that included cross-agency collaboration buffered against secondary trauma of mental health workers ( Strolin-Goltzman et al , 2020 ). Furthermore, funded by the federal government, the USA has created several Youth Violence Prevention Centers in high violence communities that combine public health and criminal justice entities informed by prevention science ( Matjasko et al , 2016 ).…”

“…In their scoping review of how law enforcement and public health address vulnerable populations, Enang et al ( Enang et al , 2019 ) defined collaboration challenges as the need for a shared definition of the issue, shared understandings of each other’s roles [also see ( Potter and Rosky, 2013 )], as well as shared protocols and processes. Other scholars note challenges related to trust ( Worrall and Kjaerulf, 2018 ), information sharing ( Gebo and Kirkpatrick, 2002 ; Shepherd and Sumner, 2017 ) and leadership ( Butts et al , 2015 ; Strolin-Goltzman et al , 2020 ). Many of these challenges also are subsumed under other names such as ‘transparency’ and ‘communication’ affecting collaborative commitment to the partnership [see e.g.…”

“…Simultaneously, community leaders are needed to spread nonviolence norms, but they can be reluctant to step into that role. A lack of leadership in intersectoral partnerships can lead to inefficiencies and negative effects on the well-being of workers in the partnership ( Strolin-Goltzman et al , 2020 ). Failure of leadership also may vary across different permutations of partnerships, whether that is among agencies, among community groups or among a mix of agency and community groups and community leaders ( McNamara et al , 2020 ).…”

Organizational Solutions to the Moral Risks of Policing

“…Consequently, another way to minimize officers' emotional and spiritual distress is to increase a sense of teamwork. It remains to be empirically tested with police, but a recent study demonstrated the value of "interprofessional collaboration and transformative leadership" on reducing symptoms of secondary traumatic stress ( [53], p. 7). Additionally, burnout and compassion fatigue have been shown to be inversely related to teamwork [54,55].…”

A Socioecological Approach to Understanding Secondary Trauma in Professionals Working with Survivors of Sex Trafficking: A Hierarchical Regression Analysis

“…At the microsystem level, greater indirect and direct trauma exposure related to one’s work responsibilities are associated with higher STS severity (Cornille & Meyers, 1999; Hensel et al, 2015; Weiss-Dagan et al, 2022). Within the mesosystem and exosystem levels, greater support from peers, supervisors, and administrators is associated with lower STS severity (Bonach & Heckert, 2012; Bourke & Craun, 2014; Bride et al, 2007; Dworkin et al, 2016; Strolin-Goltzman et al, 2020). There is emerging evidence that the degree to which an organization is STS-informed is inversely related to STS symptoms (Sprang et al, 2021), though whether this pattern holds true in organizations working with survivors of sex trafficking is unclear.…”