Response and Prevention of Vicarious Trauma for First Nations Workers and Organisations

The term vicarious trauma is the cost of caring for others. Vicarious trauma (VT) describes the detrimental impacts experienced by people who are indirectly exposed to traumatic material, in particular workers in helping professions such as Disaster & Emergency Services, Police, Health, Social Work, Counselling and frontline workers supporting clients impacted by Domestic, Family and Sexual violence. To date, the majority of the literature exploring the concept of Vicarious Trauma and managing VT has focused specifically on a non-Indigenous population. The limited existing research on VT suggests that VT can impact First Nations people in unique ways.

Full Stop Australia has a long history of the implementation of VT management within the organisation and the provision of clinical services, training and program development for a range of external organisations across Australia, including those that provide services to First Nations communities. In 2020, Full Stop Australia undertook a review of the broader VT program, reviewed current literature and drew upon practice wisdom to develop a specialised training package for First Nations frontline workers. The training aims to provide a culturally appropriate space to enable community lead discussions of these issues as well as consider culturally specific interventions for the management of VT from both an individual and organisational perspective.

This presentation will provide an overview of VT, consider some of the unique manifestations of VT within First Nations communities and organisations and explore strategies that workplaces can implement to create environments of healing and recovery. Organisations who manage VT effectively, build a culture of psychological and cultural safety in the workplace to mitigate risks associated with the cost of caring for others.