Caring for the mental health of humanitarian volunteers in traumatic contexts: the importance of organisational support.

Abstract:

:Background: Humanitarian workers operate in traumatic contexts, putting them at an increased risk of adverse mental health outcomes. The quality of the support they receive from their organization, their supervisor, and team members are proposed as determinants of mental illness and well-being, via the stress-appraisal process. Objective: Grounded in organizational support theory, we sought to understand the relationship between organizational factors, including perceived organizational support, supervisor support, and team support, and indicators of both adverse mental health and mental well-being among humanitarian volunteers. This relationship is hypothesized to be mediated by the perceived psychological stress. Methods: A sample of 409 humanitarian volunteers from the Sudanese Red Crescent Society completed an online, anonymous, survey comprised of the Perceived Supervision, Perceived Organizational Support, Team Support, and Perceived Psychological Stress scales, as well as the Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Patient Health Questionnaire scales, (GAD-7 and PHQ- 8), and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale. Study objectives were tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) procedures. Results: Perceived helplessness (PH) and perceived self-efficacy (PSE), as measures of psychological stress, were both found to fully mediate the relationship between perceived organizational support and mental health outcomes. Perceived organizational support was associated with PSE and inversely with PH. PH was associated with adverse mental health and inversely related to mental well-being. PSE was only associated with mental well-being. Perceived supervision was negatively associated with PSE. Conclusions: Perceived organizational support is a key determinant of the mental health of humanitarian volunteers, with greater perceived support associated with lower distress symptomology and greater mental well-being. Humanitarian agencies should take actions to improve their internal organization support systems to mitigate the stress associated with working in traumatic contexts. Specifically, more attention should be paid to the organizational support of the volunteers as front-line workers in humanitarian settings. :Antecedentes: Los trabajadores humanitarios operan en contextos traumáticos, lo que los pone en un mayor riesgo de resultados adversos para la salud mental. La calidad del apoyo que reciben de su organización, su supervisor, y los miembros del equipo han sido propuestos como determinantes importantes de las enfermedades mentales y el bienestar, a través del proceso de evaluación del estrés.Objetivo: Basados en la teoría del apoyo organizacional, buscamos comprender la relación entre los factores organizacionales, incluyendo el apoyo organizacional percibido, el apoyo del supervisor, y el apoyo del equipo, y los indicadores de salud mental adversa y bienestar mental entre los voluntarios humanitarios. La hipótesis es que esta relación está mediada por el estrés psicológico percibido.Métodos: Una muestra de 409 voluntarios humanitarios de la Sociedad de la Media Luna Roja Sudanesa completó una encuesta en línea, anónima, compuesta por las escalas de Supervisión Percibida, Apoyo Organizacional Percibido, Apoyo del Equipo, y Estrés Psicológico Percibido, así como las escalas de Trastorno de Ansiedad Generalizada y el Cuestionario de Salud del Paciente, (GAD-7 y PHQ-8 en sus siglas en inglés) y la Escala de Bienestar Mental Warwick-Edinburgh. Los objetivos del estudio se probaron utilizando procedimientos de modelo de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM en su sigla en inglés).Resultados: Se encontró que la desesperanza percibida (DP) y la autoeficacia percibida (AP), como medidas de estrés psicológico, mediaron completamente la relación entre el apoyo organizacional percibido y los resultados de salud mental. El apoyo organizacional percibido se asoció con la DP (b = −0.60) y la AP (b = 0.56). La DP se asoció con salud mental adversa (b = 0.88) y se relacionó inversamente con el bienestar mental (b = −0.43). La AP solo se asoció con el bienestar mental (b = 0.41). La supervisión percibida se asoció negativamente con la AP (b = −0.33).Conclusiones: El apoyo organizacional percibido es un determinante clave de la salud mental de los voluntarios humanitarios, con mayor apoyo percibido asociado con menor sintomatología de angustia y mayor bienestar mental. Las agencias humanitarias deberían tomar medidas para mejorar los sistemas de apoyo de su organización interna para mitigar el estrés asociado con el trabajo en contextos traumáticos. Específicamente, se debe prestar más atención al apoyo organizacional de los voluntarios como trabajadores de primera línea en entornos humanitarios. :背景:人道主义工作者在创伤环境下工作,这使其产生不良心理健康结果的风险增加。通过压力评估过程,他们从组织, 管理者及团队成员获得的支持质量被认为是精神疾患和身心健康的重要决定因素。目标:基于组织支持理论,我们试图了解组织因素之间的关系,包括组织支持感, 管理者支持和团队支持,以及人道主义志愿者的不良心理健康和心理健康指标。假设此关系受到心理压力感中介。方法:样本为409名苏丹红新月会的人道主义志愿者。他们完成了一个在线匿名调查,包含感知监管,组织支持,团队支持与心理压力量表,广泛性焦虑障碍和患者健康问卷量表(GAD-7和PHQ-8)以及沃里克-爱丁堡心理健康量表。使用结构方程模型(SEM)程序对研究目标进行考查。结果:作为心理压力量度的无助感(PH)和自我效能感(PSE),均被发现可以完全中介组织支持感与心理健康结果之间的关系。组织支持感与PH(b = −0.60)和PSE(b = 0.56)相关。 PH与不良心理健康相关(b = 0.88),与精神健康为负相关(b = −0.43)。 PSE仅与心理健康相关(b = 0.41)。感知监管与PSE呈负相关(b = −0.33)。结论:组织支持感是人道主义志愿者心理健康的关键决定因素,支持感越强,痛苦症状越低,身心健康状况就越好。人道主义机构应采取行动,改善其内部组织支持系统,以减轻在创伤环境下工作带来的压力。具体而言,应更加重视作为人道主义环境一线工作者的志愿者获得的组织支持。.

journal_name

Eur J Psychotraumatol

authors

Aldamman K,Tamrakar T,Dinesen C,Wiedemann N,Murphy J,Hansen M,Elsiddig Badr E,Reid T,Vallières F

doi

10.1080/20008198.2019.1694811

subject

Has Abstract

pub_date

2019-12-03 00:00:00

pages

1694811

issue

1

issn

2000-8066

pii

1694811

journal_volume

10

pub_type

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