Date of Award

5-2024

Document Type

Project

Degree Name

Master of Social Work

Department

School of Social Work

First Reader/Committee Chair

Dr. Yawen Li

Abstract

This study was conducted to gain further understanding on the possible effects of providing trauma informed care to traumatized children in the foster care system in a Short Term Residential Therapeutic Program (STRTP) environment. STRTP caregivers are prone to be exposed to secondary traumatic stress when working in providing direct care in this type of setting by word of mouth by the youth, placement paperwork of previous trauma and behaviors, and current maladaptive behaviors during placement. With secondary traumatic stress, caregivers are also susceptible to burnout. This study took a positivist approach and collected data from November of 2023-Febraruay 2024 from current STRTP members. Data was collected voluntarily by the respondents where the researcher shared the survey link on social media platforms such as the following: Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. The researcher had a total of (n=38) respondents. The researcher utilized the ProQOL measure from, The Center of Victims of Torture, which measures compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout. Utilizing SPSS, the researcher ran a bivariate analysis on the survey results. The researcher found the following findings: as caregivers engaged more in selfcare, the more compassion satisfaction they had and less burnout and traumatic stress; there was no correlation between the number of years working in STRTP and levels of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary trauma. These findings can support STRTP agencies in the future by prioritizing the importance of selfcare engagement within their agencies to prevent burnout and traumatic stress symptoms from their caregivers.

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