Supporting human service workers following the Canterbury earthquakes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol25iss2id79Keywords:
canterbury earthquakes, christchurch earthquakes, disaster, recovery, human services practice, social work practice,Abstract
In the aftermath of the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes in Canterbury, many human service workers, including social workers, struggled to meet the needs of distressed service users at the same time as they were dealing with the personal impacts of these disasters. The consequences of the earthquakes have been particularly complex and long lasting. There is no known end point for the aftershocks, and the socio-economic repercussions continue to unfold. Forty-three human service workers participated in qualitative research interviews during late 2011. The challenges they identified included the taxing nature of work involving emotional labour in a context of shared trauma; environmental stress; complex demands and fewer resources; ethical dilemmas and moral distress. Many participants re-evaluated their personal and professional priorities, and questioned the fit of those priorities with the values of their employing organisations. In doing so, some had become disenchanted, particularly if they felt they had not been consulted about decisions that impacted on their work with service users. By contrast, some participants expressed a strong sense of loyalty and engagement with organisations where workplace culture was experienced as reflective of the importance of caring for human needs and relationships.References
Brooker, J. (2011, March 10). Pain, misery for forgotten victims. The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz.
Clarke, A. E. (2005). Situational analysis: Grounded theory after the postmodern turn. London: Sage.
Dwyer, S. (2007). The emotional impact of social work practice. Journal of Social Work Practice, 21(1), 49-60. doi:10.1080/02650530601173607.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitativeresearch. Chicago: Aldine.
Guo, Y.-J., Chen, C.-H., Lu, M.-L., Tan, H. K.-L., Lee, H.-W., & Wang, T.-N. (2004). Posttraumatic stress disorder among professional and non-professional rescuers involved in an earthquake in Taiwan. Psychiatry Research, 127(1-2), 35-41. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2004.03.009.
Hartig, T., Johansson, G., & Kylin, C. (2003). Residence in the social ecology of stress and restoration. Journal of Social Issues, 59(3), 611-636. doi: 10.1111/1540-4560.00080.
Health and Safety in Employment Amendment Act 2002. Retrieved from http://www.legislation.govt.nz.
Hochwarter, W. A., Laird, M. D., & Brouer, R. L. (2008). Board up the windows: The interactive effects of hurricane-induced job stress and perceived resources on work outcomes. Journal of Management, 34(2), 263-289. doi:10.1177/0149206307309264.
Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. New York: Metropolitan Books.
Linzer, N., Sweifach, J., & Heft-LaPorte, H. (2008). Triage and ethics: Social workers on the front line. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 18(2), 184-203. doi:10.1080/10911350802285896.
Lloyd, C., King, R., & Chenoweth, L. (2002). Social work, stress and burnout: A review. Journal of Mental Health, 11(3), 255-266. doi: 10.1080/09638230020023642.
New Zealand Government. (2011, June 23). Latest Christchurch land information released [Press release]. Retrieved from: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1106/S00411/latest-christchurch-land-information-released.htm.
Stylianou, G. (2012, February 10). Woman’s death lifts earthquake toll to 185. The Press. Retrieved from http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press.
Sullivan, S., & Wong, S. (2011). An enhanced primary health care role following psychological trauma: The Christchurch earthquakes. Journal of Primary Health Care, 3(3), 248-251. Retrieved from http://www.rnzcgp.org.nz/journal-of-primary-health-care/.
Tosone, C., Nuttman-Shwartz, O., & Stephens, T. (2012). Shared trauma: When the professional is personal. Clinical Social Work Journal, 40(2), 231-239. doi: 10.1007/s10615-012-0395-0.
van Heugten, K. (2011). Social work under pressure: How to overcome stress, fatigue and burnout in the workplace. London: Jessica Kingsley.
van Heugten, K. (2012). Workplace stress in the aftermath of a natural disaster (New Zealand). In N. Hall (Ed.), Social work around the world V: Building the global agenda for social work and social development (V ed.) (pp. 41-52). Berne
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
By completing the online submission process, you confirm you accept this agreement. The following is the entire agreement between you and the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) and it may be modified only in writing.
You and any co-authors
If you are completing this agreement on behalf of co-authors, you confirm that you are acting on their behalf with their knowledge.
First publication
By submitting the work you are:
- granting the ANZASW the right of first publication of this work;
- confirming that the work is original; and
- confirming that the work has not been published in any other form.
Once published, you are free to use the final, accepted version in any way, as outlined below under Copyright.
Copyright
You assign copyright in the final, accepted version of your article to the ANZASW. You and any co-authors of the article retain the right to be identified as authors of the work.
The ANZASW will publish the final, accepted manuscript under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This licence allows anyone – including you – to share, copy, distribute, transmit, adapt and make commercial use of the work without needing additional permission, provided appropriate attribution is made to the original author or source.
A human-readable summary of the licence is available from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, which includes a link to the full licence text.
Under this licence you can use the final, published version of the article freely – such as depositing a copy in your institutional research repository, uploading a copy to your profile on an academic networking site or including it in a different publication, such as a collection of articles on a topic or in conference proceedings – provided that original publication in Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work is acknowledged.
This agreement has no effect on any pre-publication versions or elements, which remain entirely yours, and to which we claim no right.
Reviewers hold copyright in their own comments and should not be further copied in any way without their permission.
The copyright of others
If your article includes the copyright material of others (e.g. graphs, diagrams etc.), you confirm that your use either:
- falls within the limits of fair dealing for the purposes of criticism and review or fair use; OR
- that you have gained permission from the rights holder for publication in an open access journal.
