SupportNet Project

SupportNet was a project in the Trauma, Health, & Hazards Center at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs designed to assess the level of secondary trauma and burnout among military behavioral health providers and to provide a pilot support system for the providers. It was funded by a 4-year grant through the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC; Award no. W81XWH-11-2-0153). 

There were 2 phases to this project. The first phase was a longitudinal study of behavioral health providers both on- and off-post. The phase 1 results suggested that approximately 20 to 25% of providers were struggling with symptoms of secondary traumatic stress (STS) and burnout. A comprehensive self-care goal setting web-support system utilizing a social media based platform was designed to reduce burnout in military behavioral health clinicians. The web-based support system was based on social cognitive theory focused on personal empowerment and social support enhancement. This was coupled with peer coaching by a behavioral health clinician to maximize the utility of the website.

The following report provides a review of the most critical findings from the project. We hope the findings are useful for future planning in behavioral health divisions to help reduce the negative personal and organizational effects of STS and burnout. We believe this is a first step in developing comprehensive programming for these issues to support our teams of military behavioral health providers working with active and retired personnel struggling with the after effects of war.

To review the dissemination report from the SupportNet project, click below:

SupportNet: Helping Those Who Help Our Military

SupportNet Publications:

Rogala, A., Shoji, K., Luszczynska, A., Kuna, A., Yeager, C., Benight, C., & Cieslak, R. (2015). From exhaustion to disengagement via self-efficacy change: Findings from two longitudinal studies among human services workers. Organizational Psychology, 6, 2032. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.02032 

Shoji, K., Lesnierowska, M., Smoktunowicz, E., Bock, J., Luszczynska A., Benight C. C., et al. (2015) What Comes First, Job Burnout or Secondary Traumatic Stress? Findings from Two Longitudinal Studies from the U.S. and Poland. PLoS ONE 10(8): e0136730. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0136730

Shoji, K., Cieslak, R., Smoktunowicz, E., Rogala, A., Luszczynska, A. & Benight, C. C. (2015). Associations between job burnout and self-efficacy: A meta-analysis. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping. doi: 10.1080/10615806.2015.1058369 

Please stay tuned for our upcoming SupportNet book "Beyond the Battlefield" from publisher Palgrave Macmillan. This book will provide our findings, experiences and practical recommendations to a larger audience of professionals.

For more information contact Dr. Benight at cbenight@uccs.edu