Tier 1 – Foundational knowledge

Knowledge

You need to know: 

• that it is understandable and normal to feel distressed or overwhelmed after receiving a disclosure of child sexual abuse or hearing about a person’s trauma
• what compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma are
• Some of the common indicators of compassion fatigue or vicarious trauma, including:
  • headaches
  • feeling tired
  • difficulty sleeping
  • lack of motivation for everyday activities
  • depression or negative worldview
  • inability to focus on work
  • minor illnesses
• that your own experiences of trauma and abuse may affect how you respond to a victim or survivor
• the importance of taking steps to manage your own health and wellbeing and practising self-care.

Skills

You can: 

• recognise when a disclosure of child sexual abuse has created secondary stress or trauma for you
• recognise where your own responses to trauma are affecting your responses to victims and survivors and their family, kin and supporters
• ask your manager or trusted colleague for help if you are feeling overwhelmed for a number of days following a victim or survivor disclosing to you
• identify and implement strategies for self-care that work for you (for example, yoga or sport, spending time with family and friends, spending more time on hobbies and interests, and contacting support services if needed)
• discuss and develop a self-care plan.

Did you know?

Compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and self-care 

Blue Knot provides a resource about compassion fatigue, which can be a side effect of caring for someone in need. It causes physical and emotional exhaustion and reduces the ability to empathise. When you are overly compassionate without taking time to regularly recharge, you can become less able to feel and care for others. 

Vicarious trauma is a normal response to ongoing exposure to other people’s trauma or a very stressful incident. Working with people who have experienced trauma, and hearing, seeing and learning about their experiences, can affect you and many aspects of your life. 

Self-care strategies and organisational support can help prevent and minimise the effects of vicarious or secondary trauma. These resources provide information about vicarious trauma and self-care strategies: 

• Self-care and vicarious trauma fact sheet from the Laurel House Disability Workforce Toolkit
• Work-induced stress and vicarious trauma from 1800RESPECT, which also provides telephone support (free of charge) to workers affected by disclosures of child sexual abuse
• Self-care resources for professionals from ReachOut, which provides online mental health support for young people.

Resources

Taking stock of how you are feeling 

The checklist from 1800RESPECT is a way to gauge how you are feeling about your work. The things on the list do not necessarily mean that you have work-induced trauma. An answer of ‘yes’ to any of the questions can alert you to the need to speak to someone. Counsellors at 1800RESPECT are trained to talk about recognising work-induced trauma. Hearing about other people’s trauma can trigger our own unresolved trauma. Remember to ask for help if you need it.

Knowledge

You need to know: 

• you are entitled to be psychologically safe at work and your employer has a legal responsibility to provide a safe workplace
• the options and opportunities your organisation provides to support your wellbeing and assist you to manage the impact of exposure to trauma.

Skills

You can: 

• make use of available supports, including Employee Assistance Programs, debriefing after critical incidents and any supervision offered
• access training and development opportunities to:
  • develop appropriate knowledge and skills to respond effectively to disclosures of child sexual abuse
  • understand how compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma may affect you, and the strategies which can help mitigate the impacts.

Did you know?

Work health and safety 

Under work health and safety legislation, your employer has a positive duty to eliminate or, where that is not possible, minimise the risk of physical or psychological harm related to exposure to traumatic events or materials, including responding to vicarious trauma. See Safe Work Australia for more information.

Workers can be victims and survivors too 

In a national survey of practitioners working with victims and survivors of child sexual abuse conducted by the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse, 31% of respondents had a lived and living experience of child sexual abuse (self or family). The majority of these reported that the shame and stigma associated with the experience of child sexual abuse was obvious within their workplace, and as a result, they had not disclosed their lived experience to anyone (including management) at work.