13th March 2013

A study establishing whether the completion of brief daily activities can have an impact on the effects of vicarious trauma.

IDVAs are being invited to take part in valuable new research supported by CAADA which seeks to explore how we can prevent or alleviate vicarious trauma.

Clare Elcombe, an MSc student in Applied Positive Psychology at the University of East London, is coordinating a study to establish whether the completion of brief daily activities can have an impact on the effects of vicarious trauma. It is hoped the study’s findings will be used to develop future IDVA training.

Lis Bates, Head of Research and Evaluation at CAADA, said: “Clare’s research will be valuable to us and the rest of the sector in helping to constantly assess the support IDVAs receive, and to make sure that everything is done to prevent the negative effects of helping high risk domestic abuse victims.”

The study itself will be self-directed and involve the use of an app for ten minutes daily over a two week period, with an online questionnaire to complete at the beginning and end of the period. All participants should be a CAADA-trained IDVAs with a caseload of at least twenty mid- to high-risk victims of domestic abuse. The study will run throughout late March, April and May so participants can join in any fortnight which suits; and due to the practical nature of the study, all participants should be comfortable using apps and have access to an Apple device. For ethical reasons all participants will need approval from their line manager to take part and receive clinical supervision.

To express an interest or to simply find out more, please Clare directly at clare_elcombe@hotmail.com.

CAADA is supporting this, link here: http://www.caada.org.uk/news/caada-enews-Feb2013-IVDA-VT-study.htm