3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Compassion fatigue, level of exposure, empathy and affect intensity amongst employee assistance programme counsellor(2008-05-16T11:08:49Z) Harinarain, EshminABSTRACT High levels of trauma within the South African society affect the majority of the population either directly or indirectly. In order to assist individuals overcome such traumatic incidents, many companies in South Africa have contracted with Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) Providers to provide counselling to employees. These EAP counsellors are often the first mental health professionals to be exposed to a client’s traumatic story. Consequently, such counsellors may be vulnerable to compassion fatigue (CF). The consequences of EAP counsellors working with traumatised clients have been relatively unexplored. Therefore, this study proposed that EAP trauma counsellors are vulnerable within their scope of work and are an important group of professionals to be further investigated. Furthermore, leading authors in the field of trauma argue that both individual characteristics and environmental factors play a role in the development of CF. However, research into the process by which CF develops is extremely limited. Hence, this study attempted to explore this process through identifying possible core variables such as level of exposure, empathy and affect intensity and exploring their link to CF. The study was based on Figley’s (1995) Trauma Transmission Model, Dutton and Rubinstein’s (1995) Ecological Model and McRitchie’s (2006) Refined Model for Trauma Workers. The data was collected from 60 EAP counsellors, through self report measures. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, correlations, a stepwise regression, two independent sample t-tests, and analysis of variance. Results revealed that 28.34% of the sample fell within the range for CF. There were significant correlations between Level of Exposure to traumatic material and CF; between levels of empathy and CF and between Affect Intensity and Empathy. There was no significant correlation between Affect Intensity and CF. Furthermore, the stepwise regression indicated that 56% of CF may be explained by a combination of four interacting variables, that is, Level of Exposure, Fantasy, Personal Distress and Perspective Taking.Item Indirect exposure to traumatic materials: experiences of claims workers in the short-term insurance industry(2007-10-08T12:33:21Z) Ludick, Marne; ;The study focused on claims workers in the short-term insurance industry and on whether their working conditions, such as dealing with traumatised clients and traumatic materials, are affecting them adversely. Equivalent attention fell on underwriting clerks, the comparison group, to ascertain whether they differ significantly from claims workers along the dimensions of compassion satisfaction, burnout, secondary traumatic stress as well as self-esteem and optimism/pessimism. These constructs were measured by the ProQOL-RIII - , the Mehrabian MSE – and MOP Scales, after which the scores were analysed. These scores were then compared across the two groups and also in terms of mode of interaction, using parametric statistical procedures. Although no significant differences were found between the two study groups, interesting interaction effects and other findings were nevertheless revealed that shed valuable light on these groups of workers.