Overview

First, you should understand that compassion fatigue is a process. It's not a matter of one day, you're living your life with a great deal of energy and enjoyment, and the next, you wake up exhausted and devoid of all energy. Compassion fatigue develops over time—taking weeks, sometimes years to surface (Figley, 1995). If you are experiencing compassion fatigue, there is a great likelihood that your capacity to provide professional level services to children or families will be diminished.

It is important to remember that the most critical need in dealing with compassion fatigue is to acknowledge that you may be experiencing it. All of us have multiple demands and energy drains in our lives—some positive and some negative. All require a great deal of emotional and physical attention. We have only so much to give before we are exhausted.

Start refocusing on yourself. Before you can tend to and be sensitive to the needs of others, you have to take care of your own well-being. This is not selfish behavior! Remember that the healing process takes time, as does the development of the problem.

Definition

▶It refers to a physical, emotional and spiritual fatigue or exhaustion that takes over a person and causes decline in his/her ability to experience joy or to feel and care for others.

▶It is also synonymous with secondary traumatic stress syndrome, vicarious trauma and burnout.

▶It is the prolonged occurrence of the natural behaviors and emotions that arise from knowing about a traumatizing event experienced by another.

▶It is a one-way street in which individuals are giving out a great deal of energy and compassion to others over a period of time, yet aren't able to get enough personal support to reassure themselves that the world is a hopeful place. It's this constant outputting of compassion and caring over time that can lead to these feelings of total exhaustion.

Causes

▶It comes from a variety of sources.

▶It often affects those working in care-giving professions—nurses, physicians, mental health workers, clergymen and child welfare practitioners.

▶It can affect people in any kind of situation or setting where they're doing a great deal of caregiving and expending emotional and physical energy day in and day out.

▶It is the stress resulting from helping or wanting to help a traumatized person.

Who is at Risk?

▶Although those in the health care field and mental health professions are most at risk for developing compassion fatigue, it is not limited to those arenas. Any caregiver is susceptible.

▶It can affect those who don't work outside the home as severely as those that do. For example, someone who is actively engaged in taking care of a family member during a crisis period when there is a higher need to give out feelings or during a long-term illness that requires constant need to attend to their needs with compassion and sensitivity.

▶Child welfare practitioners have a much greater susceptibility to compassion fatigue compared to many other professions due to their exposure to the situations that cause children to come into care.

Compassion Fatigue Symptoms

Biological/Physical: Sympathetic and parasympathetic arousal (prolonged stress leads to immuno-suppression and frequent illness).

Psychological: Excessive self-concern, aloneness, powerlessness, despair and stagnation.

Social: Rejection, separation, lost control, giving up, destruction, emptiness and disintegration. (Friedman, 2002; Finley, 1995)

Information contained in this handout is attributed to Figley, 1995; Figley, 2002; Friedman, 2002