Hatching Ideas Lab Receives Funding to Explore Vicarious Trauma among PSP Peer Supporters
The Hatching Ideas Lab is pleased to announce that Dr. Simon Hatcher has been awarded funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to explore experiences of vicarious trauma, secondary trauma, and compassion fatigue among peer supporters of the OnCall program. OnCall is an app designed to support public safety personnel that includes access to trained peer-supporters.
Key Terms
Vicarious Trauma: When a peer supporter’s worldview changes so that the world is seen as a dangerous and unforgiving place.
Secondary Trauma: When peer supporters develop symptoms of trauma which are similar to those of the people they are trying to help.
Compassion Fatigue: When peer supporters experience a decrease in their professional ability to care for others because of their continued exposure to suffering.
The aims of this research project are to:
Measure the extent to which OnCall peer supporters experience vicarious trauma, secondary trauma, and compassion fatigue.
Assess what factors lead to vicarious trauma, secondary trauma, and compassion fatigue among OnCall peer supporters.
Explore OnCall peer supporters’ experiences of providing help and how this affects their own mental health.
This study will provide important information on the experiences of public safety personnel peer supports and will identify factors that can lead to or worsen vicarious trauma, secondary trauma, and compassion fatigue. We also hope to identify some factors that can help to alleviate some of the impact of these issues. The results of this study will be used to inform future research.
We are very grateful to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for funding this important work and to our co-investigators and collaborators.