Title: Defining Compassion Fatigue, Vicarious Trauma and Burnout
Headings: What is Compassion Fatigue?
What is Compassion Fatigue?
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What is the difference between compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and burnout?
Example:
What are some of the signs of compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma?
For more information, check out this article Warning signs of Vicarious Trauma/Secondary Traumatic Stress and Compassion Fatigue
What factors contribute to CF/VT and Burnout?
The Individual:
The Situation:
What can be done?
Working in a Healthy Organization:
Personal Strategies:
What if those strategies aren’t enough?
What if I think that someone close to me is suffering from CF?
I am a manager, how can I help support my staff?
Continue reading: Warning Signs of Vicarious Trauma, Secondary Traumatic Stress and Compassion Fatigue
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Content: Check out our live events! Compassion fatigue has been described as the “cost of caring” for others in emotional pain (Figley, 1982). The helping field has gradually begun to recognize that workers are profoundly affected by the work they do. Whether it is by direct exposure to traumatic events (for example, working as a paramedic, police officer, emergency hospital worker); secondary exposure (hearing clients talk about trauma they have experienced, helping people who have just been victimized, working as child protection workers); or the full gamut in between (such as working with clients who are chronically in despair, witnessing people’s inability to improve their very difficult life circumstances or feeling helpless in the face of poverty and emotional anguish). The work of helping requires professionals to open their hearts and minds to their clients and patients – unfortunately, this very process of empathy is what makes helpers vulnerable to being profoundly affected and even possibly damaged by their work. What is the difference between compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and burnout? These three terms are complementary and yet different from one another. While Compassion Fatigue (CF) refers to the profound emotional and physical erosion that takes place when helpers are unable to refuel and regenerate, the term Vicarious trauma (VT) was coined by Pearlman & Saakvitne (1995) to describe the profound shift in world view that occurs in helping professionals when they work with clients who have experienced trauma.