Table 3.

Barriers to growth and suggested changes: journalists’ suggestions

Barriers to growth
Perceived management insensitivity/lack of awareness	Some news desks act like 1st world war generals and send in the troops regardless of the situation just to be first with the story, excuses are frowned upon. What affects one person may not affect another. I have been told things like “Well they were ok with it why not you?” Journalists – people – are viewed as part of the cost and resource matrix. There needs to be fewer spread sheets and more humanity shown. I think my organization takes its staff – and their mental robustness – for granted…my line manager has never once asked or shown an interest in possible repercussions. Mostly, organizations care little or nothing for their employees. If you are broken, they will get someone who is not. A colleague had to remove body parts from his car resulting from a bomb explosion, before he could drive off. There would appear to be no realization that events such as this can have a long-term impact upon those involved. Having returned from a war zone or major incident you are just expected to go into the edit and start making the programme..you experience the events twice – once at the location and then back at base.
Culture of silence	There’s a culture of silence on the issue or those affected by trauma – not about addressing it but letting other people know that staff are affected. There’s very little appreciation of the complex nature of reporters who want to cover potentially traumatic events but end up being scarred. There is also a lingering macho stigma to asking for help. It wasn’t done to even mention trauma you had experienced. Only after I was ill did people contact me to say they had all had very similar experiences I didn’t feel that my colleagues could understand what had happened. I even feared they wouldn’t believe me. That sense of isolation prolonged my own period of post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is not thought about routinely.
It’s not just war	I think we need to appreciate that sometimes the stressful events are not the most dramatic. So, we should focus on people who are working on terrible court cases as well as those who go to war zones. Warn before a court case. We are often seeing repeated quite traumatic images and stories a number of times over one shift. I have been to war zones and in riots. I think we are good at dealing with this. I think we are less good at spotting the people who are jaded (at best) or badly affected (at worst) through coverage of grim UK stories (the child abuse trials etc). Where they could support better is with the humdrum UK based stories.
Suggestions to encourage growth and resilience
Offer to talk/debrief	Journalists are reluctant to ask for help perhaps a personal offer to talk would be better than the offer of professional counselling from strangers. Managers and colleagues could be more proactive, making sure people are ok after having to cover difficult issues. A debrief after difficult assignments with the whole team would be beneficial. No one sits down and checks how people are coping and what issues there might have been. Have regular conversations and provide feedback, especially to those who work remotely. A formal de-brief for people returning from a traumatic event / story. Arrange frequent meetings where people can explore such issues
Increased awareness	It’s not just about the immediate aftermath, but several months down the line too..managers need to be aware and sensitive to this. Keep an eye on those both in the field AND BACK IN THE OFFICE who witness/deal with disturbing images. It is difficult to get committed individuals sometimes to admit that potentially they could do with ‘sitting this one out’ as they feel it may impact in their future roles. Unless decisions are made for them, individuals will find it hard to say no to deployments.
Time off	What is needed is some cool off period. Having enforced periods where staff cannot deploy after a stressful incident/deployment. Allow at least a few days off after a long assignment in a conflict area.
More support for freelancers	Organizations have outsourced trauma to “citizen journalists” and freelances in conflicts such as Syria. Organizations look after their own much better than in the past but there is a whole new group of people for which they need to take responsibility. I’m freelance, and we have no support… the pay is too low to afford the safety precautions necessary for my work. I am a freelancer…taking care of myself psychologically means being prepared ahead of time to deal with traumatic events I might witness, and arranging to take care of myself afterwards. I freelance so knew little about the help available to me and was very distressed when I briefly displayed symptoms of PTSD. Give greater access to support structures for local staff across the world, even if they are only occasionally employed (freelancers).
Greater access to counselling services	I carefully changed the kind of reporting I do after being diagnosed with PTSD. I think counselling could have made a huge difference. Counselling is offered, however the shift I work makes it extremely difficult for me to see when I would be able to attend. I think everyone should have counselling on return whether you ask for it or not. Extend the use of the in-house counselling telephone service to freelancers. Some pro counselling in extreme cases.