Whistleblower Mental Health: Trauma, Justice and Accountability

Whistleblower Mental Health is an emerging field of study. The toxic tactics of retaliation previously documented include, gaslighting, mobbing, marginalizing, shunning, devaluing, double-binding, blocking, counter-accusing, and bullying. These are the elements that the Whistleblower Retaliation Check (WRC) is designed to measure. Those employees who experience retaliation can suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, panic attacks and suicidal ideation. There is also data that shows retaliation victims can also experience unemployment, poverty, homelessness, food insecurity, family discord and divorce along with co-morbid stress related conditions. Survey results on the WRC domains will be discussed that document those conclusions.

The session will focus on those stressors and the psychosocial impacts of retaliation. Survivors need to be able to find qualified and trained clinicians who can understand and treat their workplace traumatic stress (WTS) and subsequent diagnoses. The WRC discussion will center around its usefulness as a tool for evaluating WTS and the nexus to a diagnosis and the level of severity of psychological impairment. The goal is to give whistleblowers an approach that helps identify the abuse and retribution they suffered, a means of healing, and a way of holding perpetrators accountable for the harm that they cause. For whistleblowers to feel whole, there needs to be a sense of restorative justice and a renewed sense of purpose and belongingness.