The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2016 49 non. Prior to September 2001, embassies were generally evacu- ated once they came under fire from hostile forces, but since the ramping up of “expeditionary diplomacy” in the post-9/11 era, that is no longer the case. • Of the 200-odd American posts worldwide, between 30 and 40 percent may be classified as “unaccompanied” at any one time. Scientific studies show that being separated from family members is one of the most traumatic experiences an individual can face. • More than a quarter of FS personnel, after serving in so- called “danger zones,” have moved on to other posts and to Wash- ington, D.C., presumably bringing along with them unaddressed mental or emotional issues. • No baseline study of trauma in the Foreign Service workforce has ever been done. • Traumatized individuals are working in Washington, as well as abroad. For example, during an October 2015 open meeting at State on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), department- based employees reported “secondary trauma” from constant exposure, via phone calls and email, to the catastrophic experi- ences of their colleagues working in foreign countries. • Traumatized individuals may also pass on the effects to family members in the form of domestic violence and abuse. Research has shown that abusers are often themselves the vic- tims of trauma. The obvious bears repeating: The State Department is the only federal agency that requires a subset of employees—Foreign Service personnel—to spend a majority of their careers abroad. And it requires them to work in combat or otherwise extremely difficult posts to qualify for promotion into the senior ranks. To comply with international best practice with regard to managing personnel posted abroad, State leadership can no longer turn away from the reality of trauma in the Foreign Service experience. The good news is that there are newmodels of manage- ment that can help. Increasingly, international organizations that operate globally are adopting a concept of “duty of care” regarding employees. Medecins sans Frontières and the Ger- man Development Agency (GDZ) are among the organization s that have recognized that taking better care of employees—from pre-employment to post-employment—makes economic sense, creates better morale and is the right thing to do. The Antares Guidelines A few years ago, the CDC and the Antares Foundation in the Netherlands collaborated on a project to advise organizations that manage employees who live and work in hostile contexts. The result was the 2012 publication of Managing Stress in Humanitarian Workers: Guidelines for Good Practice . The Antares guidelines recognize that the stressors experienced by profes- sionals in humanitarian and associated fields (like diplomatic and development work) can be greater than those experienced in more familiar situations. Here is the summary of the guidelines: • Policy: The agency has a written and active policy to prevent or mitigate the effects of stress. • Screening and Assessing: The agency systematically screens and/or assesses the capacity of staff to respond to and cope with the anticipated stresses of a position or contract. • Preparation and Training: The agency assures that all staff have appropriate pre-assignment preparation and training in managing stress. • Monitoring: The agency ensures that staff response to stress is monitored at all times. • Ongoing Support: The agency provides training and support on an ongoing basis to help its staff deal with its daily stresses. • Crisis Support and Management: The agency provides staff with specific and culturally appropriate support in the wake of critical or traumatic incidents and other unusual and unexpected sources of severe stress. • End of Assignment: The agency provides practical, emo- tional and culturally appropriate support for staff at the end of an assignment or contract. • Post-Assignment: The agency has clear written policies with respect to the ongoing support it will offer to staff who have been adversely impacted by stress and trauma during their assign- ment. The guidelines posit that the employing organization should look after all its employees, regardless of nationality and whether they are full-time or part-time employees or contractors, through all stages of the employment cycle. The organization’s respon- sibility to its employees extends to post-employment, because PTSD and related disorders may appear only long after the first exposure to a potentially traumatizing event. Studies show that continuous exposure to live combat and extreme violence can lead even the hardiest individuals to develop PTSD.