Those helping the homeless are hurting too, according to study

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among homeless services workers is associated with career burnout and secondary traumatic stress, according to a new study by a University at Buffalo social work researcher.

The study in the Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health is the first research, based on a national sample, to explore the role ACEs have on burnout in this workforce, from the sector’s frontline workers through its executive leadership. The findings, published online Sept. 1, have critical practice implications that grow more pressing given the steadily rising rate of homelessness in the U.S., a population figure that spiked by an alarming 18% in the last two years.

That higher demand for homeless services arrives with the compounding problem of worker shortages, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Amanda Aykanian, PhD, an assistant professor in the UB School of Social Work and the paper’s first author.

“There’s a heightened need for a large, competent and healthy workforce in this sector, but cities across the country have noted that they’re unable to meet the growing demand for services,” says Aykanian, an expert in homeless services systems and workforce issues. “This research is trying to answer the question of how we can better support these workers and identify things that might put them at risk for leaving their jobs.”

The study’s sample relied on survey data from 985 workers in agencies or programs that provide services to people experiencing homelessness or people recently housed after a period of homelessness. This included both paid workers and volunteers working across agency types, excluding those working primarily in material goods provision, like food banks.

ACEs break down to 10 categories, including having divorced caregivers, substance abuse in the home, physical abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, and neglect. ACE scores range from 0 to 10.  The homeless services workers in the study’s sample had an average ACE score of 2.9. More than three quarters had at least one ACE, and more than one-third experienced four or more ACEs, a number associated with physical and emotionally detrimental outcomes.

Working in the homeless services sector has many stressors, but workers also bring personal experience to their work, like ACEs.

The rate of ACEs found in the study is higher than what’s present in the general population, but also higher than samples of other human services workers, such as child welfare workers or mental health counselors, according to Aykanian.

“It’s staggering,” she says. “Frankly, the numbers are not all that different from what we’d see in a sample of people experiencing homelessness.”

Aykanian says the pattern suggested in her research shouldn’t be ignored.

Part of the resulting attention can focus on the workers themselves and might be viewed through the lens of self-care, but because the problem is so common, and because it’s happening in an employment context, there’s an organizational component that comes into play.

“We have to think about what organizations can do more systemically to better support workers,” she says. “Training and peer support programs, support groups, and more robust benefit programs that allow for mental health days and interventions that become part of the workday, not just things we expect people to do outside of work.”