Masters Practice Projects

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https://hdl.handle.net/10292/10895
The Masters Practice Projects collection contains digital copies of AUT masters practice projects deposited with the Library since 2017 and made available open access.

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Browsing Masters Practice Projects by Supervisor "Hall, Alayne"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Item
    Best Practice for Historic Claims Staff: The Role of Professional Supervision
    (Auckland University of Technology, 2022) Tunupopo, Teagan Martha Marieta
    The Historic Claims process of the Ministry of Social Development in Aotearoa New Zealand aims to settle claims from adult survivors who experienced serious abuse whilst in State Care. The Historic Claims staff hear, support and assess the claims of claimants. Their roles involve listening to details of traumatic experiences of physical, mental, emotional, and sexual abuse. The purpose of this research was to explore the role of professional supervision in potentially preventing or mitigating vicarious trauma for Historic Claims staff. This research set out to answer the question of whether Historic Claims staff experience vicarious trauma as part of their professional duties. Additionally, this research explored the role of professional supervision as a support procedure to mitigate against vicarious trauma for Historic Claims staff. A rapid narrative literature review was conducted to determine the potential impacts of consistent staff exposure to sensitive and disturbing historic claims of abuse. This research also investigated whether this impact could be defined as vicarious trauma, the benefits of professional supervision for Historic Claims staff as well as alternative and similar measures to mitigate the harms of vicarious trauma. A total of 86 articles were reviewed for this research with a condensed format that typically summarises the content of each article. Articles were inductively grouped together to present key findings. Key findings included interchangeable definitions and use of vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout. Findings from this research hypothesised that Historic Claims staff are more likely to experience vicarious trauma due to increased exposure to graphic details of traumatic experiences as reported by claimants. Empathic listening and witnessing claimant distress as they retell their experiences of emotional, mental, physical and/or sexual abuse can also have disturbing and upsetting impacts for Historic Claims staff. Several factors have been identified in this study that mitigate vicarious trauma along with the benefits of professional supervision to include cultural supervision. Implications: The research has important implications for Māori and Pacifica people who are over-represented as claimants. Cultural supervision is an important factor in Aotearoa as well as areas to improve the effectiveness of professional supervision. Māori and Pacific models of trauma and health were also explored in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand. Traditional western focused approaches do not consider well enough Māori and Pacific ideologies of health and the historical context. Cultural competence and context are critical for trauma work, specifically for Historic Claims staff where the majority of claimants identify as Māori and/or Pacific Island descent. More research is needed to explore and protect trauma workers from undergoing psychological trauma that potentially affects client care. Approaches to manage vicarious trauma included debriefing, accepting support from each other, engaging in more energy-fulfilling activities, eating well, staying hydrated and prioritizing sleep hygiene. Measures to guard against vicarious trauma included awareness and education, increasing self-awareness to prevent burnout, organisational support and professional supervision.
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    Understanding the Difference Between Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to Better Inform Healing Approaches
    (Auckland University of Technology, 2022) Bale, Aslaug Abigail Magdalena Son
    This dissertation investigated the validity of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) as a separate diagnosis to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) specifically in the case of childhood interpersonal trauma. The current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-5) does not recognise CPTSD as a separate diagnosis to PTSD and the limitation to this exclusion is examined in this review. Specifically, this dissertation investigates the impact of exposure to early childhood interpersonal trauma in the context of deficiencies in the stress response systems, cognitive control, emotion regulation, and dissociation. Childhood trauma is shown to interrupt delicate neurosequential brain development, leading to developmental deficits in the neurobiology. Early adverse experiences are also regarded as the most dependable risk factor of adult psychopathology where the long-term impacts of adverse childhood experiences are closely linked to mental health and physical problems in adulthood. A traditional critical literature review was used to investigate the differences between CPTSD and PSTD and to explore the impacts of current practices. Current research supports the validity of the CPTSD diagnosis, where individuals who experienced adverse childhood experiences showed greater impairments compared to those with PTSD. This review includes 142 articles, books, reports and other pieces of literature, to gather current and seminal information about the topic. The limitations of PTSD interventions currently used on those with CPTSD have been analysed, where findings show that current PTSD treatments are not effective for addressing the extra interpersonal and emotion control issues seen in those with CPTSD. Working with complex trauma necessitates addressing the symptomology of CPTSD, which requires different approach methods to assist symptom reduction to facilitate recovery. Therefore, it is important to consider a CPTSD diagnosis to effectively evaluate and determine broader treatment interventions for adult survivors of childhood trauma.
Practice projects are protected by the Copyright Act 1994 (New Zealand). The research projects may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use:
  • Any use you make of these documents or images must be for research or private study purposes only, and you may not make them available to any other person.
  • Authors control the copyright of their research projects. You will recognise the author’s right to be identified as the author of the research project, and due acknowledgement will be made to the author where appropriate.
  • You will obtain the author’s permission before publishing any material from the research project.