Vicarious Occupational Trauma Exposure (VOTE) Index

Abstract

Many professionals who work with people who have trauma histories experience vicarious trauma. Vicarious trauma is “second hand” trauma that is passed on to workers when they interact with individuals who experienced trauma “firsthand” or encounter information about the trauma. A worker may not directly experience the trauma, but because they work with people or communities that have, the worker may experience these traumas indirectly. Vicarious trauma can negatively affect the mental and physical health of professionals through psychological and physiological stress-response pathways. The Vicarious Occupational Trauma Exposure (VOTE) Index is a tool designed to identify parts of a worker’s job that expose them to vicarious trauma, how often they are exposed to vicarious trauma, and how strong the vicarious trauma exposure is. The VOTE Index assesses 16 common occupational sources of vicarious trauma across four domains: 1) clients/patients sharing about trauma; 2) receiving and reviewing evidence of trauma; 3) documenting and reporting trauma; and 4) other staff members sharing about trauma.