"Compassion fatigue" is a term used to describe the emotional exhaustion and reduced ability to feel empathy that can happen when someone cares for and helps others, particularly those who are suffering or in difficult situations, for a long time. It can make them feel overwhelmed, detached, or less compassionate.
Full definition
Those in leadership positions need to understand and recognize the symptoms
of compassion fatigue in themselves and their staff.
We will also learn the laws governing a healthy workplace — because no matter how well we are doing personally, being around others
with compassion fatigue at work can become a vicious cycle.
First, even the best social workers often lasted only three to five years before burning out, a phenomenon known
as compassion fatigue.
The one thing I have seen in my 14 years of doing this work is the increased interest
in compassion fatigue, its definition, symptoms and causes.
Earlier this year, an international veterinary association magazine interviewed me for an article
on compassion fatigue.
And I had my own pretty profound experience of
compassion fatigue at a time when I didn't know what it was.
Reducing euthanasia has been shown to
reduce compassion fatigue and costs, and improve the organization's or agency's image in the public's eyes, resulting in more adoptions and donations.
By
identifying compassion fatigue early and dealing with it quickly in resourceful ways, we can keep it from stealing teachers who care from the classroom.
If you manage a team at an animal welfare organization, it's important to help them identify when they're stressed, and give them the proper tools to deal
with compassion fatigue.
The condition known
as compassion fatigue has been increasingly identified as a threat to the well - being, health, and even lives of people who work with animals.
Rather than watch teachers leave, we should devote time and effort to the seriousness of the effects
of compassion fatigue.
Early in her career, she was beginning to
feel compassion fatigue creep in, so she attended a workshop based on Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen's «Finding Meaning in Medicine» program.
Her company, Rekindle LLC, offers on -
site compassion fatigue training to veterinary hospitals, animal shelters, lab animal research facilities, and other animal organizations.
Her company, Rekindle LLC, offers on - site
compassion fatigue training to veterinary hospitals, animal shelters, and other animal organizations.
Veterinarians and veterinary technicians, along with other animal health care professionals, may
experience compassion fatigue because of continued exposure to the traumatic events their patients and families experience.
Issues of concern may include, anxiety, depression, bipolar self - regulation, grief and loss, complicated mourning from multiple losses or traumas, chronic or life - limiting illness, or
caregiver compassion fatigue.
Although some teachers discover they are not able to rise
above compassion fatigue or burnout, and ultimately, must leave their jobs, the children remain and still need educators who can care for them.
J: I can't help but think that
if compassion fatigue and self - care were taken more seriously in animal sheltering, employee retention rates might be higher, which would allow for staff to stay in the field longer, gaining additional skills, and contributing at a higher level.
J: Vet techs, rescue and shelter workers, animal control officers, individuals with pets who are suffering —
compassion fatigue seems to touch so many of us.
Just a quick note to let you know that I'll be in Wakefield, MA this Saturday, October 3rd giving a full
day compassion fatigue workshop hosted by the New England Dog Training Club.
This is
where compassion fatigue can seep in and take hold, with symptoms that can cover a wide spectrum, and can often be categorized as either physical, emotional, or behavioral in nature.
If you surrender all of your free time to volunteering in animal advocacy, it is possible that you will
develop compassion fatigue and become inefficient in your work.
Jennifer Blough, a licensed therapist,
compassion fatigue expert and author of the bookTo Save a Starfish: A Compassion Fatigue Workbook for the Animal Welfare Warrior, was initially with us on Episode # 78 of the Community Cats Podcast.
She focuses on
how compassion fatigue effects those specifically in animal welfare, and has written To Save a Starfish: A Compassion Fatigue Workbook for the Animal Welfare Warrior.
Common signs of
compassion fatigue include intrusive thoughts, anger or fear, disturbed sleep, fatigue, loss of appetite, loss of empathy, loss of faith in humanity, a sense of isolation from others and physical complaints.
Over time, however, compassion satisfaction transmutes
into compassion fatigue, which is the cumulative impact of continual exposure to traumatic or distressing stories and events when working in a helping capacity for a long period of time.
The National Council expert trauma - informed faculty will
explore compassion fatigue and how to create a culture of wellness and trauma - informed care.
With the help of neuroscience, interpersonal neurobiology, and a Synergetic Play Therapy framework therapists will learn how to effectively work with this type of play in a way that supports nervous system regulation, reorganization of the child's lower centers of the brain and
decreases compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma.