Taking Care of Helpline Staff

Counselors who respond to child sex abuse calls have a professional obligation to be aware of the personal toll these calls can have on them. Research has shown when a professional working with highly traumatizing material is able to acknowledge the impact the work has on them and practice self-care strategies, they are most effective and maintain high levels of motivation for the work. Professional missteps as indicated by poor judgment or boundary violations signal the negative impact of this traumatizing material. 

Why does child sexual abuse prevention work pose such increased risk to the helpline staff?

Calls with child sex abuse concerns are probably the most difficult type of call to which a helpline associate responds. While helpline staff are exposed to traumatic material frequently, the feelings that anything related to child sexual abuse brings up for a person are often especially unpleasant and uncomfortable. The Stop It Now!’s helpline counselor’s experience is unique in its emotionally charged content:

  • Isolated exposure to the “headlines” of a concern, which are usually the worst aspects of the situation. As helpline staff only have access to a single perspective on any given situation, the ability to really know what is going or to better understand a seemingly unlikely, desperate, or tragic situation involving an injustice is limited
  • Downstream calls (situations already involving child protection agencies and possibly legal systems) often reflect the child protection and legal systems at their worst
  • Multiple examples of child abuse – not just sexual abuse
  • The outcomes of extremely at-risk and unsafe situations are almost never known, and the usefulness of the call is rarely identified
  • Callers express many feelings of hopelessness, fear, anger, grief and pain

Any professional who helps people in need is at risk for being traumatized themselves. The helpline staff who responds to concerns of child sexual abuse is without a doubt in the highest risk category for experiencing one or all of the following:

  • Burnout
  • Secondary Trauma
  • Compassion Trauma
  • Vicarious Trauma

Expressions like “burnout” and “compassion fatigue” (http://www.compassionfatigue.org(link is external)) are used to understand the exhaustive impact on the helping professional when they see and hear pain and problems everyday of their work. Sometimes feeling that, “my heart hurts” is shared when talking about the impact of hearing yet another horrifying account of abuse. Burnout and Compassion Fatigue differ in that burnout is defined as “long term exhaustion and diminished interest” while Compassion Fatigue and Secondary Trauma describes the experience of feeling many of the same feelings of the individuals experiencing trauma.

Vicarious Trauma

Any professional is affected by this material. When you care for and about others who are experiencing traumatic events in their lives it will affect you in some way. Vicarious trauma is best described as the shift in a “helper’s” world perspective that is permanent based on their ongoing exposure to traumatic material. This means that how the world is perceived in terms of safety and health is forever altered in the eye of the professional providing support and guidance to traumatized people. To illustrate this experience, many helpers describe the unwanted thoughts at a social gathering of wondering who in the room has been abused or is abusing.

While there is no “cure” for vicarious trauma, there are steps that can be taken to reduce its impact and to increase personal protective factors. The ABCs of vicarious trauma refer to:

  • Awareness
  • Balance
  • Connection

By becoming aware of the impact that daily exposure to trauma can have on a helper, one can better recognize when he or she needs support. Recognizing and acknowledging difficult feelings and thoughts can reduce the ongoing influence of trauma work. By “knowing” the impact the work has the individual helper, the helper can be more in control. The often difficult experience of helping others can be compounded by running away from one’s own difficult feelings. It is important to frequently check in with oneself about the effects of hearing about trauma. Debriefing with colleagues is critical to managing the impact of these experiences. 

Balance refers to the ability to negotiate between work and personal needs. This means paying attention to the desires, events, relationships, etc. in one’s own life and not letting them become buried under the work of responding to trauma.

Staying connected to others and enjoyable activities is vital. Isolation can easily feed a trauma worker’s sense of their own trauma experience. Seeking out relationships that are fulfilling and supportive provides foundations for health and wellness.

Review Understanding Vicarious Trauma(link is external) for descriptions and practices to support healthy management of vicarious trauma. 

During the call, Helpline staff avoid or limit traumatic conversation that cannot be responded to productively. Callers who repeatedly describe abuse situations are redirected so that action steps can instead be the focus of the conversation. If the call taker is feeling traumatized, the caller is probably feeling similarly and helping the caller may include redirecting the call to reduce the traumatic content

Stop It Now!’s protocols determine what can be offered, not the caller’s level of neediness or trauma. It is important to remember that the role of the helpline call taker is to educate and motivate; it is the caller’s job to speak up or take steps to stop or prevent the abuse.

After the call, it is important to check in with oneself:

  • We remind ourselves that the numerous system failures we hear about do not represent the number of successful system interventions. We only hear about the situations where the system is failing or struggling to protect children, but most cases do not fail
  • People need time to process and act. Our calls are part of the progress towards a healthier and safer life. 
  • We only get a “snapshot” of where the caller is today. A call offers only one perspective on the problem – something is almost always withheld, unknown, unidentified, or avoided on the call
  • There is hope. Many people who are affected by child sexual abuse not only survive, but recover, heal, and move forward
  • This problem only affects a fraction of the general population

Debriefing 

As noted, the sense of feeling hopeless and ineffective is common for professionals working with content that is trauma related. Debriefing is a tool that can help counselors from several aspects:

  • Talk about what occurred or what was experienced
  • Review how a particular situation was handled
  • Get feedback and praise
  • Identify what worked and what tools and resources are needed for similar calls in the future
  • Feel witnessed by colleague, reduce potential isolation of helpline work
  • Share ideas

Debriefing is not repeating and reliving the call. Rather it is a tool to help the call taker assess the work that they did, while also getting support as they deal with difficult content. 

Creating time and space for debriefing is especially important. Ideally, the best time for debriefing is immediately after a call but debriefing can occur whenever possible. Ideally, a professional experienced with trauma is best to lead a debriefing but colleagues can be supported to debrief among themselves as well.  However, it is suggested that anyone who works with trauma have access to professionals experienced in working with trauma and its impact.

A brief model for debriefing:

Review stage – This is the “How did it go?” portion of debriefing. The helper can describe their experience of the call – what was needed, what was offered, what happened.

Response stage – Here, the call taker is supported in identifying what is lingering on for them about the call. The call taker may want to identify and talk about what was hard about the call and what they would like to do differently with similar calls.

Remind stage – This is the follow up portion of debriefing. What needs to be done to complete the process? The call taker is asked to identify what they need for themselves to “let go” of the call and what administrative tasks need to be completed before an indi-vidual call is “complete”.