Who takes care of the Caretakers?

Do You Suffer from Compassion Fatigue?

ISMPI’s Hardiness and Resilience Training

By Timothy J. O’Brien, M.S.

www.hyperstress.com

www.griefguideandjournal.com

© 2010, 2011 Timothy J. O’Brien

Are you a person who constantly gives comfort, support and guidance to others? Are you a Funeral Director, Physician, Counselor, Crisis Intervention worker, a person taking care of an invalid spouse or caring for an aging parent, or a grandparent unexpectedly now caring for grand children? If you are in any of these positions or ones similar to them, the chances are high that you will periodically suffer from compassion fatigue.

Compassion fatigue is a feeling of depression or burnout experienced by a person who provides counseling or consoling services to others. It is similar to guilt by association. Constantly exposed to and involved with, the environment of grief, loss, trauma, or crises, caregivers experience periodic mental, emotional, and physical symptoms of sickness, depression and psychological instability.

When I first wrote about the debilitating stress encountered by caregivers like Funeral Directors and Counselors, more than 15 years ago, there was not much research to support the concept. There weren’t many systematic approaches for dealing with it either. It was thought that the excessive stress just “went with the job,” and had to be accepted. Thankfully, that has changed.

Due to the work of psychologists like Martin Seligman, Karen Reivich, Andrew Shatte’ and others, there are now specific approaches to dealing with the stress of habitually stressful occupations. These researchers have built on the early post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) work by Dr. Charles Figley and Martin Seligman’s “Learned Optimism.” And, they have substantiated the B.R.E.A.D.S. Formula approach that I first suggested in 1989 and expanded in 2000 and