Organizational assessment of secondary traumatic stress: Utilizing the secondary traumatic stress informed organizational assessment tool to facilitate organizational learning and change

Abstract

This chapter describes an approach to the organizational assessment of secondary traumatic stress (STS) policies and practices that enables child welfare leaders to reliably evaluate how STS-informed their agency is, develop a roadmap for addressing challenges, and track progress toward organizational change in this area over time. These strategies facilitate the management of STS in the child welfare workforce, an essential component of trauma-informed care. Specifically discussed in this chapter is the Secondary Traumatic Stress Informed Organizational Assessment (STSI-OA) (Sprang et al., The secondary traumatic stress-informed organization assessment (STSI-OA) tool. Doi: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2866.1842, 2014), an evaluation tool that can be used by organizational representatives at any level to evaluate the degree to which their organization is STS-informed and able to respond to the impact of STS in the workplace. The tool describes what an STS-informed organization would look like, if all the activities were enacted fully, based on the current literature relevant to STS risk and protection, and principles of organizational learning and development (Dodgson, Org Stud 14(3):375-394, 1993; Crossan et al., Acad Manag Rev 24(3):522-537, 1999). Additionally, this chapter provides information about the reliability and validity of the STSI-OA, national norms, how the tool addresses cultural competence, and challenges to utilization and integration into child welfare settings using the National Implementation Research Network’s (NIRN) implementation framework.