Voluntary Search-and-Rescue Workers’ Experiences After Witnessing Trauma in the Earthquake Field

Turkey has an earthquake-prone geography, and as in Turkey, when professional resources are not sufficiently available in a community hit by a disaster, volunteer search-and-rescue workers’ help is crucial for quickly meeting disaster-area needs. However, few studies focus on volunteer search-and-rescuer’s post-traumatic reactions although trauma literature has grown regarding professional search-and-rescue teams’ post-traumatic responses. Based on this gap in the literature, this study was conducted. This qualitative study provides an in-depth understanding of secondary trauma and vicarious post-traumatic growth among 13 search-and-rescue team workers involved in disaster relief activities following the 2020 Izmir earthquake in Turkey. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, and an interpretive phenomenological approach was used. The findings revealed that the participants suffered secondary traumatic stress symptoms, namely, hyperarousal, intrusive images, and thoughts but experienced vicarious post-traumatic growth in discovering personal strength, relating to others, appreciating life, and striving to do their job better. This study’s findings can be a source for developing psychosocial post-disaster support services and interventions for volunteers and be used to improve pre-field preparation training content for voluntary search-and-rescue teams. The findings also underlined the fact that focusing on facilitating vicarious post-traumatic growth is as crucial as overcoming voluntary search-and-rescue workers’ post-traumatic stress.