CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 98Stress and Burnout ResearchHealthcare professionals’ stress and burnoutOccupational Health and Burnout

The contribution of organisational factors to vicarious trauma in mental health professionals: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.

Open access
Sutton, Lucy, Rowe, Sarah, Hammerton, George, Billings, Jo·2022·European Journal of Psychotraumatology
DOI 10.1080/20008198.2021.2022278PMC PMC8820814
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Background: The negative impact of trauma work has been well documented in mental health professionals. There are three main phenomena used to describe these effects: Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS), Vicarious Trauma (VT) and Compassion Fatigue (CF). To date, the majority of research has focused on the contribution of individual level factors. However, it is imperative to also understand the role of organizational factors. Objectives: This review examines the role of organizational factors in ameliorating or preventing STS, VT, and CF in mental health professionals. We further aimed to identify specific elements of these factors which are perceived to be beneficial and/or detrimental in mitigating against the effects of STS, VT, and CF. Method: Studies were identified by searching the electronic databases Medline, PsycINFO, Embase, Web of Science and SCOPUS with final searches taking place on 10 March 2021. Results: Twenty-three quantitative studies, eight qualitative studies, and five mixed methods studies were included in the final review. A narrative synthesis was conducted to analyse the findings. The results of the review highlight the importance of regular supervision within supportive supervisory relationships, strong peer support networks, and balanced and diverse caseloads. The value of having an organizational culture which acknowledges and validates the existence of STS was also imperative. Conclusions: Organizations have an ethical responsibility to support the mental health professionals they employ and provide a supportive environment which protects them against STS. This review provides preliminary evidence for the types of support that should be offered and highlights the gaps in the literature and where future research should be directed. Further research is needed to evaluate which strategies - and under what conditions - best ameliorate and prevent STS.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1080/20008198.2021.2022278

Cites

73 of 73 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Sutton et al [35] found that regular supervision, balanced and diverse caseloads, strong peer support networks and an organisational culture that acknowledges secondary trauma were key to ameliorating EBS in MHWs.

    “Sutton et al [35] meanwhile, found that regular supervision, balanced and diverse caseloads, strong peer support networks and an organisational culture that acknowledges secondary trauma were key to ameliorating EBS in MHWs.”

    From Interventions to address empathy-based stress in mental health workers: A scoping review and research agenda (2024) · cites this paper as [35]

    The Conclusions recommend regular supervision, peer support and balanced, diverse caseloads, while the Results say managers’ recognition of secondary traumatic stress is important. But the review calls this evidence preliminary and says further research is needed to establish which strategies ameliorate secondary traumatic stress; it does not establish these measures as key to ameliorating the broader category of EBS. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Sutton et al examined the impact of organisational factors on some specific forms of empathy-based stress but did not consider other forms of intervention and only looked at particular professional groups.

    “Sutton et al [35] examined the impact of organisational factors on some specific forms of EBS. However, they did not consider other forms of intervention and only looked at particular professional groups.”

    From Interventions to address empathy-based stress in mental health workers: A scoping review and research agenda (2024) · cites this paper as [35]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 8

  1. Bass, B.M. (1985), Leadership and performance beyond expectations, New York: Free Press.
  2. Ellett, A. J., & Millar, K. I. (2004). Professional organizational culture and retention in child welfare: Implications for continuing education for supervision and professional development. Professional Development: The International Journal of Continuing Social Work Education, 7, 30– 38. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.71.3.500 · DOI · Paper page
  3. Itzhaky, H. & Lazar, A. (1997). Field instructors’ position in the organization and their function with students. The Clinical Supervisor, 16(2), 153– 167
  4. Neuman, W. L. (2014). Social research methods (pp. 1– 640). Boston, MA: Pearson.
  5. Pearlman, L. A. (1996). Psychometric review of TSI Belief Scale, Revision-L. In B. H. Stamm (Ed.), Measurement of stress, trauma and adaptation (pp. 415– 417). Lutherville, MD: Sidran Press.
  6. Stamm, B. H. (2005). The ProQoL manual. The professional quality of life scale: Compassion satisfaction, burnout, and compassion fatigue/secondary trauma scales. Lutherville, MD: Sidran Press.
  7. Steed, L. G., & Downing, R. (1998). A phenomenological study of vicarious traumatisation amongst psychologists and professional counsellors working in the field of sexual abuse/assault. The Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, 2(2) 10.1177/088626000015004004. · DOI
  8. Stevenson, D., & Farmer Thriving at work: the Stevenson/Farmer review of mental health and employers. (2017).

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Sutton, L., Rowe, S., Hammerton, G., & Billings, J.
Affiliations
University College London (GB)
Corresponding author
Billings, Jo
ORCID
Venue
European Journal of Psychotraumatology
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2022-02-03
Volume
13
Issue
1
Pages
2022278-2022278
ISSN
2000-8066 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1080/20008198.2021.2022278
PMC
PMC8820814
OpenAlex
W4210786257
Cited by
98
References
73
Citations by year
2026: 27 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 6
FWCI
2.66
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • European Journal of Psychotraumatology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
commercial or not-for-profit sectors
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Burnout
Keywords
vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, mental health professionals, organizational factors, staff supervision, peer support, organizational culture, occupational injuries, burnout prevention
MeSH terms
Compassion Fatigue, Burnout, Professional, Health Personnel, Humans, Mental Health, Teaching, Organizational Culture, Workload, Qualitative Research

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review