1. Protecting the Career Practitioner from Compassion Fatigue and Burnout
Wellness Works
Protecting the Career Practitioner from Compassion Fatigue and Burnout

2. Based on the work of Charles Figler and Francoise Mathieu
The compassion Fatigue workbook
Webinar : Walking the Walk

3. Are compassion fatigue and burnout inevitable consequences of our work?

4. “The expectation that we can be immersed in suffering and loss daily and not be touched by it is as unrealistic as expecting to be able to walk through water without getting wet.
This sort of denial is no small matter. The way we deal with loss shapes our capacity to be present to life more than anything else. The way we protect ourselves form loss may be the way in which we distance ourselves from life. We burn not because we don’t care but because we don’t grieve. We burn out because we’ve allowed our hearts to become so filled with loss that we have no room left to care. Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom, 1996

5. Our Caring Profession THE GOOD Helping people meet goals
Matching the seeker to the job
Knowing people change their lives for the better
Honouring their trust
Motivating with hope
Making a difference for my community
Meeting the needs of our employers
Working for our future
Helping people get the tools they need to move forward
THE BAD
Administration and record keeping
Funders’ data bases
Government bureaucracy, politics
Lack of control over budgets
Having to meet outcomes that don’t match the needs of the folks
Never having enough time
Can’t meet all the needs
Little PD
Few places to refer for further help, mental health, financial, literacy
Internet job search process
Employers’ Hiring practices

6. The Ugly Compassion Fatigue Burnout
Related to caring about, taking care of, or exposure to trauma victims and others in need
Created by caring about the suffering of others
Try to continue to give of themselves and feel as though they have failed at their profession
Gradual erosion of all the things that keep us connected to others in our caregiver role: empathy, our hope, and our compassion, for others and ourselves
Can result from any type of stress in any kind of setting
Low job satisfaction from feeling powerless and overwhelmed at work
Our view of the world has not been damaged changed in a negative way
Experience emotional withdrawal and diminished empathy
Still retain the ability to feel compassion for others
Makes us more vulnerable to CF

7. Compassion Fatigue is:
The profound emotional and physical erosion that takes place when helpers are unable to refuel and regenerate
A secondary traumatic stress disorder
A set of symptoms, not a disease
Can lead to a wide range of destructive or unproductive behaviors

8. When I have CF I am: Over-reactive Unprofessional
Having a saviour complex
Overly invested in the outcomes and people
Angry, unable to focus, no patience for my clients or family members
A ‘cranky fusspot’
‘No matter how much I do at work, I can’t do enough to really make a difference’.

9. Sound Familiar? Bottled up emotions Impulse to rescue anyone in need
Isolated from others
Sadness, apathy
Often feel the need to voice excessive complaints about co workers and or management, increasing bitterness about work
Violate client boundaries, lack of respect of clients
Intense psychological distress at exposure to cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event

10. Symptoms, continued Lack of interest in self – care practices
Reoccurring nightmares/flashbacks
Persistent physical ailments such as allergies, colds, gastrointestinal problems
Lateness
Difficulty concentrating, mentally tired
Forgetfulness
Accident prone and error prone, judgment suffers
Hyper vigilance and exaggerated startle response

11. What Causes Compassion Fatigue?
Placing the needs of others first
Continual exposure to sad or traumatic stories or events
Unresolved past trauma and pain
Lack of healthy professional skills
Lack of self awareness that limits your growth and potential

12. Causes - continued Giving care to others who are under stress
Giving care to others when you are burnt out
Lack of healthy life coping skills
Lack of personal boundaries
Inability to communicate your own needs

13. The ‘Fatigued’ At Work:
Excessive amount of Worker’s Comp claims, stress leave
High absenteeism
Changes in co-workers’ relationships
Inability for teams to work well together
Staff challenges organizational rules and regulations
Aggressive behaviours between co-workers and clients
Inability of staff to complete assigned tasks

14. At Work - continued Lack of flexibility with other staff
Constant changes in organizational policies
Rampant rumor and gossip
Unhealthy competition between staff members
Increasingly negative work environment
Siege mentality

15. The Eventual Outcome? Mental health issues, depression, stress leave
Social supports break down
Eventually in order to recover, you may have to leave the occupation completely!

16. Who Us? Really?
Over 60% of Career Practitioners surveyed in NS are mental health consumers themselves – depression and anxiety
Realities of our work – high paced, results oriented, negative economies, pressure and stress, little clout
Clients’ personal histories increasingly ‘traumatic’
Labour market pressures could create a moral dilemma, hiring practices incomplete or unethical

17. Ways to Reduce Compassion Fatigue
Strong social support both at home and work
Increased self awareness
Good self care
Better work/life balance
Job satisfaction
Rebalancing case load and workload reduction
Limiting trauma inputs
Accessing coaching, counseling, and good clinical supervision as needed
Attending regular professional development and training

18. We Can defend Ourselves
Educate ourselves about CF , Burnout, and secondary trauma, vicarious trauma
Increase our self awareness of our warning signs, our feelings of overwhelm and vicarious trauma before we get to full blown ‘fatigue’
Build strategies to de-brief upsetting events in a low impact way. Decrease the ‘sliming

19. Vicarious Trauma in our work?
Vicarious trauma – occurs when the stories we hear from our clients transfer onto us in a way where we too are traumatized by the images and details, even though we did not experience them ourselves. We then find it difficult to rid ourselves of the images and experience they have shared with us.

20. Low Impact Debriefing – setting boundaries
What kind of conversation is this? Case conference, case consultation, work lunch, soccer game, party?
Is the listener aware that you are about to share graphic details?
Able to control the flow of what you are about to share with them?
If it is consultation or case conference has the listener been informed that it is a debriefing or are you sitting in their office chatting about your day
Have you given fair warning?
How much detail is too much? How much do we need to tell to be productive in our work?

22. We have choices .. Reduce our ‘trauma load’ on a daily basis
Become aware of media enhanced disaster ‘porn’, violent crime dramas. Even the Weather Network can have a negative cumulative impact on your already overloaded day
Where do the stories we hear at work go at the end of the day?

23. Techniques
“Helpers who bear witness to many stories of abuse and violence notice that their own beliefs about the world are altered and possibly damaged by being repeatedly exposed to traumatic material” Transforming the pain p.49

24. Healthy teams make us stronger
Build strong support networks at work, supportive teams, strategic alliances:
No more Bitching, Moaning and Whining (BMW) -
Gossip adds dramatically to the negativity load
Commit to building your self esteem in healthy ways, not on the backs of others.
(‘Nurses eat their young’)

25. Better managed case/work loads
Pace and size of the case load make a huge difference to work satisfaction
Look for ways to manage this differently if possible
Build ‘micro breaks’ into our schedules ( mindfulness meditation) if nothing else
Work with Management to alter the work day in some way, part time , some other task one day a week

26. Are you in the Danger Zone?
Surveys and self tests canhelp you identify your current state of work and life satisfaction
Many tools to capture your current level of positivity, happiness, your values, your curiosity, anxiety can be found in The Compassion Fatigue Workbook or at
Authentic happiness .org

27. Learn about and commit to better self care.
Take baby steps to make big changes begin
Put your health first
Savour the positivity in your life, gratitude, curiosity, applications from Positive Psychology research
Increase self compassion
Reconnect with the satisfaction with your work

28. To Increase Personal Happiness
1. Work on positivity
2. Practice gratitude
2. ‘Three good things’ exercise
3. Use your strengths in novel ways
4. 15 minutes a day of doing nothing
5. Learn something new

29. Resources, Credits Francoise Mathieu The Compassion Fatigue Workbook
Webinar -Walking the walk , creating CF solutions
Blog, YouTube videos, website
Positivity -Barbara Frederickson
Mindfulness meditation -Jon Kabat Zinn
Patricia Smith