Reliability and Validity of the Vicarious Trauma Organizational Readiness Guide (VT‐ORG)

Abstract

The Vicarious Trauma Organizational Readiness Guide (VT‐ORG) is an assessment of an organization's readiness to address vicarious trauma (VT), which is exposure to the traumatic experiences of people served. This study reports on the psychometric properties of the VT‐ORG. Employees of first responder agencies (e.g., law enforcement, fire, emergency services) and victim assistance agencies are at a high risk for vicarious traumatization, which can lead to PTSD, substance use, and suicidal ideation, among other negative impacts. Organizations that do not address VT may see such effects as employee turnover, reduced efficiency, and negative work environments. The VT‐ORG is an assessment tool designed to help organizations complete the first step of organizational change—conducting a needs assessment. Study participants were 3,018 employees across 13 first responder and victim assistance agencies who completed the 67‐item VT‐ORG and additional measures for evaluation of its validity and reliability. The VT‐ORG was found to have excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .98). A structural equation model demonstrated that the subscales of the VT‐ORG predicted criterion measures of turnover intention, compassion satisfaction, and organizational resilience, with an overall model fit of CFI = .99, RMSEA = .053. This study found the VT‐ORG to be a reliable and valid assessment of organizational responses to vicarious trauma.

Measuring Trauma- (and Violence-) Informed Care: A Scoping Review

“…The development processes for the included measures ranged from reviewing the literature and existing measures to extensive multistage processes involving consultation with expert panels, field testing, and/or community-based participatory research (e.g., Baker et al, 2016;Sprang et al, 2016). For seven measures, theory appeared to be integrated into or foundational to development (Goodman et al, 2016;Hallinan et al, 2019;Madden et al, 2017;Richardson et al, 2012;Salloum et al, 2018;THRIVE, 2011), whereas theory was mentioned, but not integrated, or not mentioned at all for the others; details regarding the role of theory were not always clear. Similarly, some articles reported more extensive validation work than others, and a few articles explicitly noted that further validation was needed (e.g., Richardson et al, 2012;Salloum et al, 2018;THRIVE, 2011).…”

“…Measures were designed to assess a variety of constructs related to T(V)IC. Two were focused on VT (Hallinan et al, 2019;Sprang et al, 2016) but were included in Stage 1 because they explicitly measured it from a trauma-informed organization perspective. Similarly, one measured trauma-informed self-care (Salloum et al, 2018).…”

Psychiatric Sequelae Among Community Social Service Agency Staff 1 Year After a Mass Shooting

“…These findings suggest that agencies should assess their organizational capacity for addressing secondary trauma and related mental health concerns among their staff. 6 Prevention and intervention strategies should focus on all levels of the organization to promote staff wellness. 6 This study has some limitations.…”

“… 6 Prevention and intervention strategies should focus on all levels of the organization to promote staff wellness. 6 This study has some limitations. Because it is a cross-sectional study, the data only capture a specific point in time, other unmeasured factors might account for these findings, the findings are not generalizable, there was a low response rate, and nonrespondents may differ from respondents.…”

A Scoping Review of Vicarious Trauma Interventions for Service Providers Working With People Who Have Experienced Traumatic Events

“…Suggestions for creating a VT-informed organizational culture might include increasing trauma-specific supervision, developing peer support networks, and providing opportunities for clinicians to receive mental health services and online support (Branson, 2019;Elwood et al, 2011). For example, VTinformed organizational readiness guides (Hallinan et al, 2019), STS-informed organizational assessments (Sprang et al, 2019), and training in STS core competencies in trauma-informed supervision (National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 2018) can be useful tools to assess and diagnose organizational capacity and readiness to address VT and can support organizations in providing VT-informed supervision to professionals at risk of developing VT (Sprang et al, 2019).…”