Cassandra E. Simon

Secondary Traumatic Stress and Oncology Social Work: Protecting Compassion from Fatigue and Compromising the Worker's Worldview

Abstract Secondary traumatic stress (STS) represents a disorder that has the same symptoms as post traumatic stress disorder, but results from vicariously experiencing trauma through association with those directly encountering the traumatic event(s). This exploratory study examined STS in 21 oncology social workers who were members of the Association of Oncology Social Workers. The results of this study revealed that oncology social workers experienced compassion fatigue and burnout and that these variables were inversely related to compassion satisfaction. Other relationships between emotional involvement, ability to separate work from home, level of licensure, personal loss, and empathetic responsiveness were also examined.

The stage-specific role of spirituality among African American Christian women throughout the breast cancer experience.

This study presents the results of semistructured interviews conducted with 18 African American Christian women regarding the role of spirituality throughout their breast cancer experiences. The spiritual themes relevant for phases of the breast cancer experience are identified. Analysis resulted in the identification of 11 codes and 5 subcodes that corresponded to the diagnosis, treatment, and posttreatment phases of the breast cancer experience. Most of the survivors indicated that their spirituality and faith assisted them throughout the breast cancer experience. Discussion focuses on the spiritual resources used by the participants at the different stages in the breast cancer experience. Attention is given to implications for how professionals can use these resources to assist African American women coping with breast cancer.

Psychosocial and Career Mentoring: Female African American Social Work Education Administrators' Experiences.

There is a scarcity of knowledge on the mentoring experiences of Black women in social work academia. Using a survey methodology, this pilot study examines the mentoring experiences of 10 Black, female leaders in social work education as protégées. It also examines how they describe their current mentoring behavior toward recent protégés. The results indicate participants provide more psychosocial and career mentoring than they received as doctoral students or as faculty members. Additionally, participants received the least help from their own mentors in balancing career and family and currently give little assistance of this kind to their own protégés.

Mentoring in the Careers of African American Women in Social Work Education

This article reports the findings of a study that examined the role of mentoring in thecareers of African American women in the administration of social work education.A focus of the study was the ways in which race and gender influence mentoringexperiences. The findings suggest that although the participants were successful intheir careers, mentoring opportunities were not a part of their early careerexperiences. They also indicate that race and gender play important roles in the type ofmentoring experienced by African American women in social work academia.

Mental Health, Substance Use, and Adaptive Coping among Social Work Students in the Aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

The current study examined mental health symptomology, substance use, and adaptive coping among 416 social work students following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Among participants, 47% scored at or above the clinical level for depression, with 6% of students showing clinical PTSD-like symptoms, and 16.9% reporting substance use. Two thirds (66.9%) employed 8 of the 10 adaptive coping responses. Negative cognitive and emotional reactions to the hurricanes correlated positively with mental health symptomology and 7 of the 10 adaptive coping responses. In the aftermath of a natural disaster, it is critical to provide students with education, information, and close supervision to address issues around impairment and vulnerability and to maximize resilience.

Spiritual Support and African American Breast Cancer Survivors

This qualitative study used data from interviews with 18 African American breast cancer survivors in the southeast regarding the women’s live experiences of spiritual support during the process of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. Through a thematic content analysis, four primary sources of spiritual support were identified: God, members of religious communities, family members and friends, and health care professionals. Some participants reported negative experiences associated with the reactions of religious community members to their breast cancer. Those who received spiritual support from their health care providers reported welcoming such support.

Levels of death anxiety: a comparison of American and Lithuanian health and social service personnel.

Globalization, coupled with increased attention to issues surrounding death, highlights the need to explore cultural influences on the social, personal, and psychological consequences of death. This study compared the responses of 82 American and 119 Lithuanian health and social service personnel on seven subscales of the Multidimensional Fear of Death Scale. Lithuanian participants were more likely to express fear of the dying process and fear of the unknown and were less likely to fear the dead than were Americans. The findings suggest that different historical and environmental experiences with death may influence anxiety about various dimensions of death. Cultural differences in the dimensions of death anxiety among health and social service providers in the two nations suggest the importance of differential training based on specific cultural knowledge to improve the quality of care.

Missing the Mark: The Image of the Social Work Profession in an African-American Community

This exploratory study used a project-developed questionnaire to examine the perceptions of members of an African-American community (N = 102) regarding the social work profession and its commitment to issues pertinent to African-Americans. The results suggested that while the African-American respondents felt that social workers could be a source of help, a considerable amount of the respondents reported that they did not see social workers as being helpful or sensitive to the needs of African-Americans. The results of this study have implications for social work practitioners and educators.