Empowering aged care workers to tackle vicarious trauma
Many older Australians experience stress and emotional changes when entering an aged care facility. Through supporting clients with health issues, dealing with harassment, behavioural challenges and end-of-life, aged care workers are frequently exposed to trauma as part of their work. Despite this, the experiences of aged care workers themselves are often overlooked.
After interviewing managers, nurses and personal care staff within aged care, researchers at RMIT found that 93 per cent of respondents had experienced physical violence at work. 44 per cent reported being threatened with a weapon and 87 per cent of staff recorded being sexually harassed.
At the Brotherhood of St Laurence Aged Care facility, clients have come from a homeless or low-income background and many have one or multiple mental health conditions. Recognising the impact this could have on her staff, Milly Kuranage, Head of Residential Care at Brotherhood of St Laurence Aged Care, reached out to The MacKillop Institute after hearing Cameron Burgess, National Program Director Sanctuary, speak at an aged care conference.
In 2024 Milly and some of her staff undertook our preventing vicarious trauma training. The training focused on giving staff an understanding of how vicarious trauma can occur, what the symptoms can look like, and practical strategies that can be put in place to help prevent it in the first place.
"There's lots of advocacy and supports for our elderly, but there's not much talk about how another person's trauma affects other staff. I believe there's not much support in that space. When I heard Cameron speaking at the conference I was quite inspired by him and I felt hopeful, that there are support mechanisms and there is recognition of these issues."
Head of Residential Care at Brotherhood of St Laurence, Milly Kuranage
Milly is aware that incidents are often underreported.
“Something happens every single day, there's underreporting of it. Yes, it comes with the job, but there should be support afterwards. It's not very well spoken about and it's not very well recognised,” she said.
Milly has seen her staff putting strategies from the training session to use in their workdays.
“The training was very well received, I had really good feedback from my staff. I can see most of my staff who attended the session wearing the safety plan card that we created during the training, having it documented was something they really enjoyed. We have a park just outside the facility, I can see them going for walks more often and I can see them prioritising acts of self-care”, she said.
“I also feel it's important to actually acknowledge that the work we do is not easy. Our residents don't get discharged once they live with us. There’s the journey that the resident is taking, our staff take that journey alongside them.”
Working with Aged Care Providers
Without the right support in place, workplace stress and incidents can be difficult to process. We collaborate with organisations to provide evidence-informed programs that draw on MacKillop Family Service's decades of experience and direct work in the community. Our suite of offerings promote cultural transformation and organisational wellbeing and cover topics like trauma-informed practice and combatting vicarious trauma in the workplace. We love to support aged care facilities in their important work supporting older people.