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Dealing with the Trauma of Job Loss
A Peer Support Approach for Displaced Workers

By Rey Carr

The Curriculum Must Fit the Mission
Volunteers who are themselves displaced workers need a curriculum which not only helps them to assist other displaced workers, but is also sensitive to the degree to which they have resolved various displaced worker issues for themselves. In addition, the curriculum must reflect or be an extension of the mission of the organization so that the organization can make a commitment to the volunteers.

Displaced workers face a number of issues, many of which involve strong emotions, severely test their resilience, and can be devastating to their self-esteem and health (as well as their financial and family security). For example, anger, feelings of betrayal, self- blame, powerlessness, lack of social support, loss of identity, feelings of abandonment, family conflicts and role shifts, and worries about starting over are just a few of the issues displaced workers must manage. Therefore, a training curriculum cannot be based on a “deficiency” approach; that is, if the curriculum assumes that the volunteers need skills they presently do not have, the curriculum runs the risk of contributing to the problems of displaced workers rather than resolving those problems. Instead the curriculum must use a “strengths” approach and build on the resources, existing skills, knowledge and abilities of the participants.

In practice, this strengths instead of deficiency approach presents the curriculum designer with at least three challenges. The first challenge is to thoroughly understand the range of issues associated with being displaced in today’s economy, culture and social system. This understanding can come from a combination of personal experience and reflection, intensive study and research, and observations and dialogue with displaced persons. The outcome of this combination is the creation of activities that are likely to help the peer volunteers identify issues from their own experience, reflect on the meaning of such experience, consider options or actions (or new behaviours or attitudes) for dealing with the issues, and generate interventions that might help others deal with such issues.

The second challenge for the curriculum designer is to ensure that the volunteers perceive the curriculum as relevant to their expectations, needs and experiences.

‘Canned’ or previously developed curricula can be useful only if they are used to help the volunteers compare or contrast their own experience with the activities suggested in the canned curriculum. The curriculum is a supplement to, not a replacement for the experience of the displaced peer workers. In practice this means that any pre-determined activities must be flexible and sensitive to the issues brought out during the training experiences. However, this ability to flex should not be perceived as presenting “unstructured” or “let’s just wing it,” activities. Volunteers who are displaced workers are already anxious about returning to ‘classroom’ learning situations, and their willingness to tolerate ambiguity or uncertainty is necessarily low. Therefore, the goals of curriculum activities must be clear, match or inspire participant expectations, and be relevant to the expressed needs of the participants.

While the third challenge can be considered to be associated with designing the curriculum, it relies strongly on a leader and curriculum interaction. The leader must be able to demonstrate or model any of the activities in the curriculum, including those activities which are likely to elicit strong emotions, discuss past experiences, or genuinely develop new insights. At the same time the leader must be skilled in listening to both the verbal and non-verbal contributions of the participants in order to spontaneously switch activities, shift gears, move deeper, or lighten up. In addition because of the natural propensity of the curriculum to create discussions at a personal level, the leader must be continuously alert to and be skilled in preventing the experience from becoming ‘therapy’. While discussion may be ‘therapeutic’, and may need some sharing of personal references, the leader must assist the participants to relate their reference to the context of mutual aid or helping peers.

The Training Curriculum
For the initial cadre of volunteers from the hospital settings in Ontario the training was organized into two three day training sessions, separated by a forty-five day period where the volunteers implemented their learnings with other displaced workers.

As a way of summarizing the various activities for this article, the activities have been divided into four categories: the phrase used by the participants which best captured the theme of the activity, a brief description of the training activity, the purpose of the activity, and the skills or knowledge to be gained as a result of the activity. (See Diagram I below.)

Peer support workers would connect with displaced workers through referrals from local hospital committees established to manage lay-offs. The existence, ability and organization of these committees varied widely across the province. Typically the peer support workers would contact the displaced worker directly, explain their role, and arrange for a personal meeting. Often the peer support workers would work in pairs or teams and divide the interviews between them.

When appropriate, the peer support workers would use a needs assessment interview schedule as a structured and objective way of meeting with other displaced health workers. The needs assessment helped the peer support workers gain information about options being considered and resources previously explored. The peer support workers would also inform the worker about benefits available through HTAP (retraining allowances and such).

Preliminary Evaluation
At the end of each of the two training sessions, evaluation forms were distributed to the peer support worker volunteers. The evaluations from the first session clearly indicated that the volunteers learned a number of skills, experienced themselves as empowered to help others in concrete and needed ways, felt confident and eager to implement the peer support program, and expressed appreciation for being part of a team.

The evaluations completed after the second training session focused more on the challenges that the peer support workers were likely to face upon returning to the field. Two main themes emerged. The first theme centered on improving some of the interpersonal skills that would increase the degree of help they could provide other displaced workers. The second theme had to do with better management of intra-personal reactions associated with providing peer support services. 

Future Directions
The program continued for a few years with full support from the Ontario Hospital Training and Adjustment Panel. However, HTAP eventually abandoned the initiative, and information about the basis for this decision is not available. At the same time, the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) initiated a similar peer helper program through its Action Centres, and that peer-based service continues today.

On the positive side, prior to the curtailment of the initiative, many individual peer support workers became employed as peer supervisors because of their experience and abilities. Other staff members from HTAP took additional training to become peer trainers in order to increase the precision of the curriculum in meeting the HTAP mission. Not surprisingly some of the volunteers left the team to take on full-time positions within the health care field; while other volunteers have decided to expand the services they offer to persons displaced in other fields outside of health care.

Although the mandate for HTAP was to focus on workers who had already been or were scheduled to be laid-off, it is clear that the impact of lay-offs also strongly affects workers who remain on the job. Uncertainty, animosity, hopelessness, and apathy are all too often experienced by those employees remaining on the job as a result of seeing their friends and colleagues lose their jobs. Workers who remain are expected to manage the revised work load or take up the slack created by the smaller staff. Morale typically goes down, productivity is dramatically affected, and the quality of care is bound to suffer.

Attending to the reactions and perceptions of those who have not been laid-off is an important additional step in managing displaced workers. Peer-based employee assistance programs show considerable promise in this direction. Organizations may have little control over the many economic factors which force them to reduce their workforce; however, they can demonstrate a sense of care and concern for their employees. Organizations can relate to employees in ways that will reduce the likelihood of sabotage, violence, or unproductive achievements often associated with organizations in turmoil. Peer support will play a significant role in achieving this goal.

Although this initiative started as a government sponsored project, only the Canadian Auto Workers have come forward to continue this peer support work. While the reasons for this are beyond the scope of this article, the absence of more widespread peer-based support service for displaced workers may provide an opportunity for coaches to develop or offer a group-based service to help such workers as well as those employees remaining in the workplace where such layoffs took place. The possible use of the principles and curriculum detailed here may be of use (and are freely available) to coaches who wish to offer their services to help workers during these uncertain economic conditions.

References
Beck, I. (April, 1992). Out of work: Its effect on the family. Maryland Family Magazine, 6.
Borgen, W., & Amundson, N. (1984). The experience of unemployment. Ottawa: Employment and Immigration, Canada.
Brammer, L. (1979). The helping relationship: Process and skills (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Carr, R.A. (1984). Peer career counsellors: A conceptual and practical guide. Victoria, British Columbia: Peer Systems Consulting Group, Inc.
Carr, R.A. (1987). The theory and practice of peer counselling. Victoria, British Columbia: Peer Systems Consulting Group, Inc.
Covey, S.R. (1990). The 7 habits of highly effective people: Powerful lessons in personal change. New York: Fireside.
Dail, P.W. (1988). Unemployment and family stress. Public Welfare, 30, 34, 43.
Fleming, M., & Cheshire, N. (March 15, 1989). Unwanted and unwell. Nursing Times, 85, 48-49.
Fortin, D. (September, 1984). Unemployment as an emotional experience: The process and the mediating factors. Canada’s Mental Health, 6-9.
Kirby, H. D., & Luker, K.A. (October, 1986). The experience of unemployment and its effects on family life. Health Visitor, 59, 312-314.
Knowlton, E., & Dumas, L.S. (1990). Congratulations! You’ve been fired: Sound advice for women who’ve been terminated, pink-slipped, downsized, or otherwise unemployed. Toronto: Random House.
Madonia, J.F. (October, 1983). The trauma of unemployment and its consequences. Social Casework, 482-488.
McCranie, E.W., Lambert, V.A., & Lambert Jr., C.E. (1987). Work stress, hardiness, and burnout among hospital staff nurses. Nursing Research, 36, 374- 378.
Paulter, K.J., & Lewko, J.H. (September, 1984). Children’s worries and exposure to unemployment: A preliminary investigation. Canada’s Mental Health, 14-16.
Schore, L. (1989). Empowering dislocated workers in union-based counseling programs. Nouvelles Pratiques Sociales, 2, 157-171.
Sherrin, P., & McCarthy, E. (1992). Social structure, self-conception and well-being: An examination of four models with unemployed people. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22, 117-133.
Starrin, B., & Larsson, G. (1987). Coping with unemployment—a contribution to the understanding of women’s unemployment. Social Science and Medicine, 25, 163-171.
Vrankulj, S. (April, 2012). Finding their way: Second round of the CAW worker adjustment tracking project. Toronto: Canadian Auto Workers (Available here.)

Diagram I: 

“We need to change the culture of health care in America. Health coaches could be a tier of health care providers that don’t cost a lot to train and could actually provide the infrastructure to make it easy to do the right thing. If we can make that happen in America, we’ll cut our costs, and everything else will fall in place.”

~ Who Said This? ~

Tough Conversations Yield Truths

By Julia Menard
 

“We are one big family of people, trying to make our way through the unfolding puzzle of life. We are all connected to one another in the heart. Connecting with the ultimate source of love is possible through discovering the hidden power in your heart.”

~ Who Said This? ~

ATTEND A TOP LEVEL PEER EVENT
Many mentorship conferences and training events are scheduled over the next few months. Here are a some of the many in-person events listed on the Peer Resources website (http://www.peer.ca/peerevents.html)

“Unless your heart, your soul, and your whole being are behind every decision you make, the words from your mouth will be empty, and each action will be meaningless. Truth and confidence are the roots of happiness”

~ Who Said This? ~

WHAT'S NEW IN PEER WORK

The Peer Health Exchange (PHE) is a national organization that recruits, selects and trains college student volunteers to teach high school students a comprehensive health curriculum that includes 13 health workshops on topics ranging from decision-making and sexual health to substance abuse and nutrition. Their focus is to create a peer-based program in cities where teens are unprepared to protect themselves against serious health risks. Ninety percent of the volunteers say their experience in the classroom compelled them to make a commitment to public service, and 96% of the participating high school students say they will use something they learned from the workshops to make a healthy decision in the future. Research shows that the majority of participants in the program increase their health knowledge, and the majority of school principals would recommend the program to other schools. Programs have been established in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, DC. Additional contact details: Peer Health Exchange National Office, 70 Gold Street, San Francisco, California 94133; (415) 684-1234; email: national@peerhealthexchange.org.
 

“When the Grateful Dead played at the In Room, they noticed that the trains on nearby tracks rolled by at consistent times every night. Rather than waiting for the trains to pass, or trying to drown out the noise, they chose to play along with the rumble of the trains. Within a few nights, they took that train noise, combined it with a fragment of a song, and created Caution: Do Not Stop on Tracks (YouTube). That is the essence of improvisation: taking something unexpected and even unwelcome--the noise from a passing train, a new competitor for your business, an economic crisis—and using it to your advantage.”

~ Who Said This? ~ 

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