Professional Support Systems for Staff Staff Selection Principles Professionalism of Prison and...

Professional Support Systems for Staff

Staff Selection Principles

Professionalism of Prison and Probation Staff in Correctional Work

October 2014Dr Jo Clarke

University of York

Setting the Scene

A Critical Occupation

One where there is high risk of exposure to traumatic events that may, under certain

circumstances, exert critical impact on the psychological well-being of those within it

(Paton & Violanti,1996)

Resilience is…

• …actually, not nearly as straight forward to define as we might think!!

• Is it– A personality trait?– Measurable?– Stable over time?– Acquired?– Trainable?

• “…relative resistance to environmental risk experiences, or the overcoming of stress or adversity.” Rutter (2007).

Resilience

• Bounce-back-ability• Hardiness• Flexibility• Thriving in the face of adversity• Adjusting to demands• Optimism• Emotion control• Using all your resources

Resilience (Paton et al, 2008)

The capacity of organizations and individuals to draw upon their own individual, collective, and institutional resources and competencies in ways that allow them to render challenging events coherent, manageable and meaningful

i.e. to cope with, adapt to, and develop from the demands, challenges and changes encountered as a result of working in a critical occupation

What’s good?

• Kadambi and Truscott, 2003– Protection of the public– Offender change and wellness– Connection to colleagues– Enjoyment of counselling– Offender specific change– Socially meaningful curiosity– Professional benefits

The Stress Shield Model (Paton et al., 2008)

SPORE Final Conference

The Stress Shield Model (Paton, Violanti, Johnston, Burke, Clarke & Keenan, 2008)


This model accounts for 47% of the variance in Job Satisfaction

The Stress Shield Model (Paton, et al., 2008)


This model accounts for 27% of the variance in Adaptive Capacity

Static Factors

Stable Factors

CriticalOccupation

Dynamic Factors

PositivePsychological

Outcome

NegativePsychological

Outcome

Model of Dynamic Adaptation (Clarke 2004)

About the factors• Static Factors

– Factors that are fixed or unchanging or change in a highly predictable way, e.g. gender, qualifications, age

• Stable Factors– Factors that are potentially changeable but relatively stable; factors

that under normal circumstances only change slowly, e.g. coping style, perspective taking skills

• Dynamic Factors– Factors that change rapidly and/or unpredictably, e.g. changes in

organisational structure, events not under personal control (accident)

About the factors• Critical Occupation

– This includes all the “on-the-job” type factors, such as types of unit/prisoners, colleague relationships, policies and procedures

• Positive Psychological Outcome– Anything rewarding about the job, from working with a great team, to

a previously highly aggressive prisoner getting through the day without hitting anyone!

• Negative Psychological Outcome– Any cost, such as feeling irritable, tired, suspicious of others, anxious when

alone, anxious around others etc

Age

Coping style

Organisationalculture

Personal trauma

Protection of the publicOffender change and wellness

Connection to colleaguesEnjoyment of counsellingOffender specific change

Socially meaningful curiosityProfessional benefits

Disrupted schemaIntrusive imagery

RuminationDifficulty making decisions

Heightened fear and anxietyFeelings of anger, guilt,

frustration, disillusionment, depression,

inadequacyDecreased sensitivity and

dulling of emotion…

The Model of Dynamic Adaptation (Clarke, 2004)

The Person

STATIC FACTORS

STABLE FACTORS

CRITICAL OCCUPATION

DYNAMIC FACTORS

POSITIVE OUTCOME

NEGATIVE OUTCOME

Static Factors

Stable Factors

CriticalOccupation

Dynamic Factors


Outcome


Outcome


Intervention 4Intervention 3Intervention 1

Intervention 2

A Strategy to Enhance Resilience:

Organisational Duty of Care• Preparation 1 (Intervention 1)

– Selection (Skills, qualities, values)• Preparation 2 (Intervention 1 & 2)

– Training (competence)• Practice (Intervention 2)

– On the job support (supervision, debriefs, progression, early warning systems)

• Post-Event-Recovery (Intervention 4)– Counselling, Trauma Disclosure

Static Factors

Stable Factors

CriticalOccupation

Dynamic Factors


Outcome


Outcome


Intervention 1

Intervention 1: Preparation

• Selection – Taking account of stable and static factors– Qualities and competencies for a particular role– Targeted psychometrics– Qualitative elements

• Training – In psychological self-maintenance skills– Competencies for the role– Increase psychological resilience using simulation

Static Factors

Stable Factors

CriticalOccupation

Dynamic Factors


Outcome


Outcome


Intervention 2

Intervention 2: Organisational Practices

• Organisations characterised by poor communication, red tape, lack of consultation have significantly higher symptoms of PTSD

• Organisations characterised by an empowered workforce show signs of significantly more posttraumatic growth among staff (Paton, 2006)

• Vulnerability to trauma symptoms increase through persistent use of established decision procedures, internal conflicts regarding responsibility, and a predisposition to protect the organisation from blame or criticism (Gist & Woodall, 2000)

Intervention 2: Solutions

• Environmental Resilience–Impact–Choice–Meaning–Competence

Intervention 2: Peer and Social Support

• 88% of therapists cite peer support as crucial (Jackson et al., 1997)

• Professional peers and co-workers highly valued support resource (Kadambi and Truscott, 2001)

• Perception of peer support was a significant predictor of lower levels of psychological distress (Ennis and Horne, 2003)

But…• Some studies indicate peer support increased rather than

decreased levels of stress (Grossi and Berg, 1991: Morrison et al., 1992)

• High levels of social support can have negative effects in mental health settings (Sandler and Barrera (1984)

• Negative interactions can outweigh the beneficial effects of of social support (Fiore et al., 1983)

• Others suggest social support does not lead unconditionally to a positive effect (Peeters et al., 1995)

• There is little empirical evidence to to support the assertion that support from co-workers and supervisors is preventative (Digman and West, 1988)

Why?

Most studies fail to incorporate assessment of individual differences such as coping style, attribution style and levels of perspective

taking.

And another thing

The perception of supportive behaviour appears to be dependent on who is providing it

Attrill (1995)

• Co-therapists – covering shifts, discussing sessions• Specialist Staff – sharing specialist knowledge• Managerial Staff – Easing operational complexities,

publicly backing the programme• Senior Managers – attending meetings and and

SOTP-related training• Poor administrative support from Senior Managers is

associated with higher levels of exhaustion and worker disorientation (Garland, 2004)

Intervention 2: Supervision

• Supervision and well-being: working with the individual in the High Risk context

• Advantages– Provides 3rd person perspective– Helps identify strengths and weaknesses– Helps gain insight– Identify issues of personal impact– Accountability– Ethical issues– Resolve tensions between stakeholders

Additional Interventions:

• Developing skills of leaders and supervisors • Developing formal support networks within

the team context • Develop a support infrastructure that

responds, as far as possible, to individual needs over time

Static Factors

Stable Factors

CriticalOccupation

Dynamic Factors


Outcome


Outcome


Intervention 3

Intervention 3: • Dynamic factors are very difficult to predict

or account for• Staff experiencing a traumatic event report

significantly more dissatisfaction with the organisation (Clarke, 2004)

• Training that includes increased awareness of emotional and psychological processes of adaptation

• Structuring expectations regarding the nature and likely effectiveness of the work

• Reviewing work related material to enable informed consent

Static Factors

Stable Factors

CriticalOccupation

Dynamic Factors


Outcome


Outcome


Intervention 4

Intervention 4

• Counselling or Debriefing– Counselling currently has good intuitive clinical and organisational

appeal– Counselling can be effective in managing depression and anxiety– In the case of high risk jobs, this is rather like putting the

ambulance at the bottom of the cliff– There is no empirical evidence that counselling is protective or

preventative– More counselling significantly correlated with rumination and

autonomy (Atkinson, 2005)– Increase in severity and chronicity of symptoms (Carlier, et al.,

1998)

• Post Event Recovery environments

Professional Support Systems for Staff Staff Selection Principles Professionalism of Prison and...

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