Files
Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the relationship between compassion fatigue and trauma-informed supervision. West (2015) described compassion fatigue as the adverse emotional or behavioral outcomes of assisting a client who is suffering from trauma. Compassion fatigue is a workplace problem recognized in human service organizations. Components of compassion fatigue are burnout, lowered levels of compassion satisfaction, and secondary traumatic stress. The organizational climate and culture of helping professionals may help alleviate compassion fatigue through support of self-care, peer support, trauma-informed supervision support, and professional recognition. This research project utilized mixed methods to collect data from staff of two mid-sized human service agencies to explore the relationship between compassion fatigue and trauma-informed supervision. Survey’s utilized include the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL Version 5; Stamm, 2010) to measure compassion fatigue in lower-level workers and a researcher-developed Trauma-informed Supervisory Support survey to measure the knowledge retention and type of trauma-informed supervision given by supervisors. One focus group with lower-level worker participants were held with each agency. Social work implications include modifications to current theory, practice, and/or policy.