Caring for the Caring: Organizational Policies to Support Providers Working with Trauma Survivors

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  • January 10, 2020
Creator
  • Holden, William David
    • Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Public Health Leadership Program
Abstract
  • Caregivers working with trauma survivors frequently struggle with compassion fatigue. Employers, supervisors, and others often encourage compassion-fatigued caregivers to cultivate resilience through the practice of self-care, but organizations may structure or influence the work of caregivers in ways that reduce or intensify compassion fatigue. In this paper “compassion fatigue” refers to the range of negative responses that caregivers may have when working with trauma survivors, comprising both the emotional exhaustion of burnout and the personality changes of vicarious traumatization. In contrast “resilience” refers here to the range of positive responses that caregivers may have when working with trauma survivors, comprising a return to previous levels of positive functioning, adapting to stressful work, post-traumatic growth, and perhaps personality transformation. This paper reviews the literature describing factors contributing to compassion fatigue and recommends particular policies based on current research to reduce compassion fatigue. Ideal policies should attend closely to caregivers’ emotional responses to their clients and work environment. Examples of such policies include the expectation of ongoing clinical supervision, customary practice of evidence-based self-care techniques during the course of the working day, and generous provision of mental health services for caregivers. Organizations committed to providing mental health services should enact all of these recommended policies as far as possible; other caregiving organizations that provide services to trauma survivors, such as public health and general healthcare, should enact as many of these policies as are relevant and possible for their settings.
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  • In Copyright
Note
  • Paper type: Policy
  • Track: Leadership
Advisor
  • Sollecito, William
Reviewer
  • Robbins, Margaret
Degree
  • Master of Public Health
Academic concentration
  • Public Health
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Graduation year
  • 2017
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  • 041b569d-4026-4c82-9cd3-5009cc4381d4

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