Background

Residential childcare workers (RCWs) in child welfare and youth-justice settings are at risk of secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and moral distress. Workplace support has been shown to be protective against work-related harms for some helping professionals and a lack of workplace support has been cited as a contributing factor toward workforce instability; however, little is known about what types or sources of support are effective for RCWs.

Participants and setting

81 RCWs from 11 residential units in 11 of the 16 territorial service centers across the province of Québec, Canada.

Methods

This interpretive description study analyzed data extracted from transcripts of individual interviews guided by the Secure Base Interview protocol (Schofield & Beek, 2018). Responses to a single item were read for meaning, compared, contrasted, and then coded using the thematic analysis technique. The sources of support identified by participants as helpful were aggregated to reveal a common support system pattern.

Results

Multiple sources of social support were described; the majority were interpersonal interactions with peers, unit managers, and various interdisciplinary team members. Informal individual supports without role overlap and teams with a common vision were most often cited, even when formal supports were available.

Conclusions

Implications of these findings include the need to conceptualize effective workplace social support for RCWs and to rethink the place of mutual-aid among trauma-exposed professionals in residential child welfare and youth-justice settings.

中文翻译：

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强强联合：住宅儿童福利专业人员的工作场所社会支持

背景

儿童福利和青少年司法机构中的家庭托儿工作者 (RCW) 面临继发性创伤压力、倦怠和道德困扰的风险。工作场所支持已被证明可以保护一些帮助专业人士免受与工作相关的伤害，并且缺乏工作场所支持被认为是导致劳动力不稳定的一个因素；但是，对于 RCW 有效的支持类型或来源知之甚少。

参与者和设置

来自加拿大魁北克省 16 个区域服务中心中的 11 个的 11 个住宅单元的 81 个 RCW。

方法

这项解释性描述研究分析了从安全基础访谈协议 (Schofield & Beek, 2018) 指导下的个人访谈记录中提取的数据。阅读对单个项目的反应的意义，比较，对比，然后使用主题分析技术进行编码。参与者确定的有帮助的支持来源被汇总，以揭示一个共同的支持系统模式。

结果

描述了多种社会支持来源；大多数是与同事、单位经理和各种跨学科团队成员的人际互动。最常引用没有角色重叠的非正式个人支持和具有共同愿景的团队，即使有正式支持也是如此。

结论

这些发现的含义包括需要为 RCWs 概念化有效的工作场所社会支持，并重新思考在儿童福利和青年司法环境中遭受创伤的专业人员之间互助的位置。