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BJSW Advance Access published online on November 24, 2009
British Journal of Social Work, doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcp137
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.

Intervention in a Shared Traumatic Reality: A New Challenge for Social Workers

Rachel Dekel* and Nehami Baum

Rachel Dekel is an Associate Professor at the Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. She is particularly interested in the study of individuals who have experienced secondary exposure to traumatic events. Her research has examined spouses of former veterans and prisoners of war, children of fathers with PTSD and therapists who have treated victims of terrorism. In addition, Prof. Dekel is interested in exploring the consequences of direct exposure to traumatic events.

Nehami Baum, Ph.D., is a senior lecturer of the School of Social-Work at Bar Ilan University. She is a social worker with experience in both public and private practice. Her main areas of interest are: men's way of mourning and non-death related losses, and situations that mental health professionals confront in their practice. More specifically, in the last few years she has been studying professionals' private experiences (e.g., pregnancy) and environmental conditions (e.g., terror, war and political conflict) on their professional functioning.

* Correspondence to Dr Rachel Dekel, Ph.D., The Louis & Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work, Bar-Ilan University, Ranat-Gan, Israel. E-mail: dekell{at}mail.biu.ac.il


  Abstract

Shared traumatic reality refers to those situations in which social workers help survivors cope with the very traumas that they themselves have been threatened by and/or exposed to, given the reality that they live and work in the same community as their clients. This paper is an initial attempt to present the knowledge gathered to date about providing treatment in shared traumatic realities. It reviews the various definitions and uses of the concept in the literature, the negative and positive impact derived from working in these situations, the unique characteristics that define and might help explain the resultant consequences of working in them, and practical and future research recommendations.

Keywords: Social workers, shared reality, trauma, secondary traumatisation, vicarious traumatisation


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