Secondary Traumatic Stress

The need for the study arose out of the lack of scientific validated dataregarding the treatment of Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder (STSD)/compassionfatigue among emergency rescue workers as well as the need for acost effective treatment plan that would address the serious need foremergency rescue workers in South Africa. The effects of STSD are often asdebilitating as that of PTSD. It hampers the sufferer unable to operate as wellas they previously did. As a result they may present with lower productivity atwork as well as psycho-social problems. This research focuses on thedevelopment of a short term action centred clinical personological treatmentprogramme for adult emergency rescue workers who developed STSD/ compassionfatigue and co-morbid symptoms of burnout as a result of exposureto critical incidents. The action centred personological treatment programmeproved to be effective in the treatment of symptoms of STSD/compassionfatigue and burnout without significantly reducing the candidates' potentialfor compassion satisfaction. This study would be of interest to professionalsin the fields of psychiatry psychology and emergency rescue work.