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"This book presents a narrative approach to creating a supportive environment for health and human service practitioners who work with vulnerable children and their families. As one of the most difficult and complex areas of practice, people working in these environments are routinely exposed to violence and trauma and commonly experience symptoms of traumatic stress as a result. Traditionally, human service and health care service organisations have struggled to support practitioners who experience primary and secondary trauma either in a preventative context or post exposure. Using contemporary trauma theory, this book provides a trauma-informed support and supervision framework for supervisors and managers of practitioners that recognises the uniqueness of the practice field, the diversity of practitioners who undertake the work, and diversity of contexts in which they work. It will be required reading for all human service and health professionals including social workers, psychologists and nurses as well as teachers, counsellors and youth workers"--

This book presents a narrative approach to creating a supportive environment for health and human service practitioners who work with vulnerable children and their families--one of the most difficult and complex areas of practice. People working in these environments are routinely exposed to violence and trauma and commonly experience symptoms of traumatic stress as a result. Traditionally, human service and health care service organisations have struggled to support practitioners who experience primary and secondary trauma in either a preventative context or post exposure. Using contemporary trauma theory, this book provides a trauma-informed support and supervision framework for supervisors and managers of practitioners that recognises the uniqueness of the practice field, the diversity of practitioners who undertake the work and the diversity of contexts in which they work. It will be required reading for all human service and health professionals, including social workers, psychologists and nurses as well as teachers, counsellors and youth workers.

AbstractChild protection work is one of the most difficult and complex areas of human services practice. Working within a trauma-laden environment often means that practitioner susceptibility to trauma-related mental health issues is an occupational hazard. However, many practitioners are reluctant to seek support when they start to experience symptoms of traumatic stress. This paper considers current literature relating to child protection workers' exposure to work-related traumatic material, resulting traumatic stress symptomology and organisational responses to practitioner distress. Results from a recent doctoral study that explores the experiences of child protection practitioners based in Queensland will be presented. Findings from the study were derived from qualitative in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The study findings indicate that the organisational culture within statutory child protection agencies creates an environment where practitioners are labelled as incompetent or not suitable for child protection work when they disclose experiencing symptoms of traumatic stress. The experience of bullying and retribution by supervisors and colleagues and the fear of rejection by the workgroup were also found to be significant barriers for workers seeking support.

Knowledge about support and supervision needs of Indigenous child protection workers is missing from the child protection practice landscape. Previous work in this area (Dane, 2000; Gibbs, 2001; Anderson, 2000) has not been Indigenous-specific meaning that Indigenous workers' voices are left unheard. The purpose of this paper is to review the current literature through a critical lens and to examine three main areas of interest, namely, how past government policies may impact workers within the child protection system; unique support and supervision needs; and recruitment of Indigenous people as a strategy to address over-representation. The review found that child protection staff recruitment strategies must incorporate supervision and support frameworks that acknowledge the trauma based histories of Indigenous staff. Further research is warranted into what these frameworks might look like.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are disproportionately represented in all parts of the child protection system in Australia. The recruitment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners into child protection systems to work with Indigenous families at risk underpins the government strategy to reduce this over-representation. However, little is known about the experiences of Indigenous people who undertake child protection work or what their support and supervision needs may be. This research is centered on Indigenous Australian child protection practitioners as experts in their own experiences and as such includes large excerpts of their own narratives throughout. Practitioner narratives were collected via qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews. Critical theory and decolonising frameworks underpinned the research design. The study found that Indigenous child protection practitioners have a unique place in the families, communities and profession. Many viewed their work in the child protection field as an extension of their Indigeneity. This coupled with the historical experience of state-sanctioned removal of Indigenous children during colonisation and contemporarily, informs the need for child protection workplaces to re-think the support and supervision afforded to Indigenous practitioners