Supervisors' role in balancing personal, work demands, and team needs in addressing disaster worker mental health

One key element of the National Institutes for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Worker Training Program’s (WTP) Disaster Resilience Training Project, is the need to train disaster supervisors about stress, trauma, and resiliency. People who supervise or coordinate workers and volunteers during response, recovery and reconstruction are typically subjected to the same stressors and traumas as the workers they are supervising. They have the additional burden of getting the work done in conformance with demands of organizational leadership. Supervisors do not often receive training in recognizing and supporting workers who are affected by stress and trauma. To fill that void, NIEHS WTP developed a training program for Disaster Supervisors as part of a series of resiliency training programs for disaster workers, supervisors, and care providers.

The Disaster Supervisor Resilience program uses interactive adult training techniques to engage supervisors in learning to 1) recognize and respond to their own and team members’ reactions to stress and trauma, 2) recognize the unique role of supervisors in balancing health, safety, resilience, and productivity, 3) demonstrate stress reduction and supportive skills, 4) obtain support through community and organizational mental health resources; and 5) provide leadership and support for the people being supervised.  The Supervisor course follows a similar format to the worker course, with additional emphasis on the leadership role of supervisors.