9/1/2023-6/9/2024

Recruitment is now open

• Social workers working with clients who have a trauma history and/or are currently experiencing trauma.
• Social workers from every cultural background (including Caucasian Australians) located in Australia are invited to participate in this research

Social workers routinely listen to clients’ traumatic experiences and respond to crisis situations. Their empathic engagement with traumatic material can result in negative alterations in the social worker’s inner experience, referred to as vicarious trauma. Professionally, vicarious trauma can have a significant impact on workers’ professional judgement, ability to maintain hope and optimism, and dedication to engage in therapeutic work. Aside from the negative impact of working with trauma survivors, a lesser-explored phenomenon in the literature is the potential positive outcomes of trauma work.

To date, there is limited research regarding how the diverse cultural backgrounds of social workers interface with their experience in managing vicarious trauma and developing vicarious posttraumatic growth. There is also a lack of research concerning the well-being of multicultural social workers and what individual and organisational support can do to bolster their ability to manage vicarious trauma and foster vicarious posttraumatic growth.

This research aims to explore the lived experiences of vicarious trauma and vicarious posttraumatic growth in Australian social workers from diverse cultural backgrounds

This study involves two audio-recorded semi-structured interviews. The second interview will be conducted nine to twelve months after the first interview. You can participate in the interviews in person (Brisbane based), over the phone or online using a platform that is the most convenient to you (e.g., zoom). All audio-recorded data collected from interviews will be transcribed verbatim for analysis by the research team. Once the transcript is complete, you will have the opportunity to review it. Special care will be taken to check against the audio file and transcription to anonymise any potentially identifiable information. Participation in this research is entirely voluntary and confidential.

Questions in the interviews I would like to ask might include:

• Can you tell me what it is like in your line of work?
• Do you think your work has changed you? If so, can you describe what are the changes and how the changes occur?

To recognise your contribution should you choose to participate, the research team offers a $50 e-gift card after the first interview. Another $50 e-gift card will be given upon completion of the second interview.

Queensland University of Technology (QUT)

Principal Researcher/PhD Student:

Michael Wong

Email: [email protected]

Supervisor Investigator Details:
Professor Jane Shakespeare-Finch
Email: [email protected]

Dr Michelle Newcomb
Email: [email protected]