Title: Vicarious trauma & burnout | The Lookout
Headings: Vicarious trauma & burnout
Vicarious trauma & burnout
Impacts of responding to family violence
Recognising the signs and symptoms of vicarious trauma
Recognising the signs and symptoms of burnout
How to protect yourself
Preventing burnout

Content: Vicarious trauma & burnout | The Lookout
Vicarious trauma & burnout
For family violence workers
Vicarious trauma & burnout
Vicarious trauma & burnout
Working with people who have experienced and/or perpetrated family violence can be rewarding, but it is also challenging. In Victoria, we are working on the issue of family violence at an unprecedented rate and the demands on specialist family violence practitioners are particularly high. Impacts of responding to family violence
It’s important to be aware of how responding to family violence may have an effect on you. Three common impacts are vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress and burnout. Vicarious trauma is the experience of trauma symptoms that can result from being repeatedly exposed to other people’s trauma and their stories of traumatic events. A person’s world view (belief systems) can be significantly changed as a result of hearing those stories. Vicarious trauma is cumulative, building up over time. Secondary traumatic stress is the emotional duress that results when an individual hears about the firsthand trauma experiences of another. Its symptoms mimic those of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Burnout is the prolonged physical and psychological exhaustion related to a person’s work.