[1][2] Secondary trauma has been researched in first responders,[3] nurses and physicians,[4] mental health care workers,[2] and children of traumatized parents.
[2] There is a strong correlation between burnout and secondary traumatic stress among mental health care professionals who are indirectly exposed to trauma and there are a multitude of different risk factors that contribute to the likelihood of developing secondary traumatic stress amongst individuals who conduct therapy with trauma victims.
Some of the protective factors for mental health care workers include years of experience in the profession, more time spent in self-care activities and high self-efficacy.
Public librarians work closely with vulnerable, at-risk populations, and often experience emotional and psychological strain while doing so.
[4] Van Ijzendoorn et al. (2003) conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies with 4,418 participants in which they explored secondary trauma in children of Holocaust survivors.
Questions on the STSS addresses issues with intrusion, avoidance and arousal symptoms similar to those found in PTSD.
This has been shown by multiple studies to have damaging effects on the survivors and actually exacerbates the trauma symptoms present.
CISM is another one session exposure-based intervention aimed at reducing distress by having the client recall and explain the traumatic event but has a follow-up component.
CISM differs from CISD in the sense that two components are added and believed to be the driving factors for symptom reduction in individuals with STS.
SIT is a type of training that uses skills to lower autonomic arousal when exposed to the traumatic material.
These techniques include muscle relaxation training, breathing retraining, covert self-dialogue and thought stopping.
Compassion fatigue refers to a reduced capacity to help as a health care professional after being exposed to the suffering and distress of their patients.
Vicarious trauma is similar to secondary traumatic stress, but individuals with VT display only one subtype characteristic of PTSD, negative changes in beliefs and feelings.
[14] Susan D. Scott, PhD, RN, CPPS described a predictable phenomenological pattern that second victims experience after an adverse event: 1) chaos and accident response, (2) intrusive reflections, (3) restoring personal integrity, (4) enduring the inquisition, (5) obtaining emotional first aid and (6) moving on.
[13] The concept of job burnout was originally developed to assess negative consequences of work-related exposure to a broad range of stressful situations experienced by human services employees.