The effectiveness of psychological debriefing with vicarious trauma: a meta-analysis

✍ Scribed by Everly, George S. ;Boyle, Stephen H. ;Lating, Jeffrey M.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 79 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0748-8386
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1700(199910)15:4<229::aid-smi818>3.0.co;2-m

✦ Synopsis

Post-traumatic psychiatric reactions to physical trauma are readily acknowledged and accepted. However, there is a relatively new phenomenon of developing similar reactions after providing emergency care to such patients. The purpose of this study was to examine the eectiveness of a crisis intervention technique known as group psychological debrie®ng, which is designed to mitigate the impact of post-traumatic morbidity in individuals exposed to vicarious traumatization. Using adequately controlled, peer-reviewed journal articles and clinical proceedings as the database, 698 subjects from 10 investigations were submitted to a meta-analysis. The results support the eectiveness of group psychological debrie®ngs in alleviating the eects of vicarious psychological distress in emergency care providers.