Storytelling Through Music to Improve Well-being Among Homeless Service Providers

The University of Texas System (UT)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Burnout, Professional; Depression; Anxiety; Secondary Trauma

Treatments: Behavioral: Storytelling Through Music

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06536387

STUDY00006156

Details and patient eligibility

About

Homelessness is a complex social issue and requires a dedicated workforce of helping professionals, including nurses and social workers. Secondary traumatic stress is common in this workforce and contributes to poor professional quality of life, burnout, and job turnover. These factors undermine the health and well-being of homeless service providers and threaten the stability of this critical workforce. The purpose of this study is to evaluate "Storytelling Through Music," an innovative 6-week, multi-dimensional intervention, to improve well-being among homeless service providers.

Full description

Research has found that the burden of secondary traumatic stress among homeless service providers (HSP) is similar to that among other healthcare professionals, including nurses working in urban emergency departments and in inpatient psychiatric hospitals. Left unaddressed, secondary traumatic stress can cause compassion fatigue and emotional exhaustion, furthering a cycle of poor professional quality of life (QoL), burnout, and job turnover. Research has identified that arts-based interventions have promise in helping healthcare professionals cope with work-related emotions, assist in revealing genuine emotions linked to work-related stress, and in improving professional QoL. What remains unclear is if arts-based interventions can yield similar benefits amongst HSPs.

The purpose of this study, therefore, is to evaluate the feasibility of implementing Storytelling Through Music (STM) with HSPs working with the homeless population in Austin, Texas. STM is a six-week intervention that combines storytelling, reflective writing, song-writing, and self-care skills to improve emotion regulation through affective and cognitive coping skills. Our preliminary data suggests STM to be feasible and acceptable, and preliminary evidence demonstrates improved coping, psychosocial well-being, and burnout in nurses. Specifically, this project aims to:

Aim 1: Explore the contextual factors impacting the well-being of frontline HSPs.

Aim 2: Examine the feasibility of implementing Storytelling Through Music with HSPs.

Aim 3: Investigate the preliminary intervention effect on coping (emotion regulation, self-compassion); well-being (anxiety, depressive symptoms, loneliness, post-traumatic growth, insomnia); and work-related factors (secondary traumatic stress, burnout, compassion satisfaction, and intent to leave).

Enrollment: 14 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• >18 years old
• employed in a homeless services organization in Austin/Travis County for at least 6 months
• licensed as a nurse or social worker
• ability to read and speak English
• access to computer, internet, and zoom.

Exclusion criteria

• previous participation in the STM intervention

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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14 participants in 1 patient group

Storytelling Through Music

Experimental group

Description:

Storytelling Through Music is a six-week intervention that utilizes storytelling, reflective writing, self-care skills, and song-writing. The intervention will be administered in small groups of 4-6 participants/group and with a hybrid approach. The writing workshops will occur online, and the share circle (stories and songs shared with the group) will occur in person. The group sizes will be kept small to ensure that each participant has adequate time to share their writing during the group sessions.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Storytelling Through Music