Abstract
Objective: The work activity of counsellors in shelters for female victims of conjugal violence is explored. The consortium of shelters requested the study because of complaints of worker stress, difficulties in management and high employee turnover.
Methods: This qualitative and participatory community study involved a team of specialists in ergonomics and social work from the Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire sur la biologie, la santé, la sociélté et l'environnement (CINBIOSE), brought together by the Community Outreach Service of Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Presented here are the study findings pertaining to training. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews and 80 hours of observation of work and training were conducted with counsellors from two contrasting shelters.
Results: Observations revealed an intense collaborative activity involving communication by many means. Nonetheless, young counsellors interviewed complained of having few opportunities to develop their counselling skills because they were isolated on evening, night and weekend shifts. In collaboration with the ergonomists, one shelter experimented with new ways of devising the work schedule to favour learning and training.
Conclusion: By transforming the training mechanism, job status and work schedules, the shelter made the conditions more conducive to the development of counsellors' skills and health, while eliminating turnover for at least the two following years.
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