DOMAIN 1: RESILIENCE-BUILDING, STAFF HEALTH, AND WELLNESS

Item 10

To what extent does your organization promote and support adaptive coping strategies on the job?

Strategies:

• Provide opportunities for staff to learn and practice emotion regulation skills to manage the emotional demands of the job. For example, leaders can promote the use of grounding and relaxation exercises by role-modeling and integrating these exercises in team meetings and supervision.
• Create time and space and resources for staff to practice at work.²⁵ It is important that staff have opportunities to debrief with a supervisor or peer, especially when dealing with difficult cases or interviews. Some agencies have created a quiet room/decompression room/respite room or have used outdoor space to help staff practice self-care during the workday. Other agencies have brought in a therapy dog or yoga instructor (on staff or volunteer) to support staff on the job.
• Consider instituting a wellness day once per month or once per quarter. This could be a day off or a day in which the team engages in self-care and team-building activities.
• If feasible, consider allowing time off, breaks, or simpler duties to help support healthy coping after a difficult case, potentially with opportunities to completely detach from the work environment.²⁶
• Be respectful of diverse coping styles and survey staff as to what coping supports would be helpful rather than assuming what staff may want or need.
• Support staff in taking time off and ensure that there is adequate coverage so that staff do not need to worry that their taking leave is negatively impacting clients or colleagues.
• Agency policy needs to include adequate time-off for staff, as having ample time off can reduce STS and burnout.²⁷ This includes mental health or wellness days. (See Domain 3, “Secondary Traumatic Stress–Informed Policies and Procedures” for more information.)

Putting Resources into Practice

Leaders and supervisors can review the following resources, try them out to enhance their own resilience, and select the resources they think would be most helpful for their staff. Leaders and supervisors can demonstrate the exercises during individual and group meetings and share the resource list with staff to promote resilience-building practices.

Select Action Plan to begin to organize and implement next steps.