Lecturette on Risk Factors Associated with Compassion Fatigue

Type of Activity: Lecturette on risk factors associated with compassion fatigue. Goal of the Activity: To education participants on the research that has been conducted within the area of compassion fatigue and its risk factors. Stage of Group Development: Used during the middle of the second session, this activity further educates participants on compassion fatigue. Population: This activity is best used with participants who have been through session one of this series (Introduction to Compassion Fatigue). Basic understanding of what compassion fatigue is will facilitate the participants understanding of its associated risk factors. Materials Required: No special materials required. Time Required: The timing for this activity is flexible, however for the purposes of this session a 15-minute timeframe should be maintained. Procedure: here ‘we’ and ‘I’ refers to the facilitators and ‘you’ refers to the participants 1. Introduce the Lecturette: risk factors associated with compassion fatigue. This introduction will touch on the following points: a. We will be outlining some of the research that has gone into assessing risk factors for compassion fatigue. b. We will be asking you to think of how and if these risk factors apply to you personally. c. We would also like to ensure that you keep in mind that these are risk factors: identifying with some of these by no means mean that you will experience compassion fatigue nor is this an exhaustive list of reasons why people develop compassion fatigue. Our hope in pointing these out is to increase your awareness of when and who compassion fatigue tends to effect. In future sessions we will address how to identify compassion fatigue which will help you personalize this information. With this increase in awareness we believe that you will be able to prevent compassion fatigue in the future. 2. Present Craig and Sprang (2009) findings: a. A recent study conducted in 2009 by Craig and Sprang looked at compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction in 525 participants: 65% females and 35% males. These participants were working as clinical psychologist, social workers and, specialized trauma response personnel. These participants filled out the Professional Quality of Life Scale (which you will see in one of our future sessions) and the Trauma Practices Questionnaire. b. AGE: The conclusions of this study showed that younger professionals reported higher levels of burnout, whereas older professionals reported higher levels of compassion satisfaction. This is something that we all need to keep in mind as soon to be ‘new’ professionals ourselves. According to these findings this is the time to really be aware of the signs that may mean you are experiencing compassion fatigue. c. ORIENTATION: In addition to this finding clinicians who used evidence- based practices (exposure therapy, CBT interventions, EMDR) were found to have higher levels of compassion satisfaction. This is something to think about when you are considering what ‘psychotherapeutic tools’ you want to educate yourself on if you are going to be working with a population that often deals with trauma. Personally, I can see how these would tend to lead to a decreased risk of compassion fatigue: with CBT there is a plan that leads to a goal: a goal that once achieved can make the client and the clinician feel good. It is also often more ‘tangible’ then other therapies which may be what someone needs if they have been through a trauma to regain a sense of control. Other more ambiguous orientations such as existentialism and psychodynamic theory have vaguely defined goals, which can be emotionally exhausting day after day especially if one has already been through an emotionally traumatic experience. However, the last thing we want to do is to tell you how to practice – what is to be taken from this is just awareness. I tend to think of myself as a psychodynamic-feminist counsellor but with this piece of information in mind I may also look into some interventions to add to my counselling toolbox that may help prevent compassion fatigue. For example, another article that we came across suggested using process-oriented therapies like Harm Reduction, Narrative Therapy, and Motivational Interviewing as a means of preventing compassion fatigue because these techniques focus on the clients strengths, rather than the problem the client comes with, giving more autonomy to the client and decreasing pressure on the clinician, possibly causing less compassion fatigue (Fahy, 2007). Preventative factors will be discussed in more detail in future sessions. d. CASELOAD: In addition to age and orientation, having a large caseload of clients who have experience PTSD were found to increases the risk of compassion fatigue. It is always important to be aware of the mental and physical hazards associated with your chosen profession. Given this finding, if you chose to work with PTSD clients or find yourself a large PTDS caseload it is good to assess yourself for compassion fatigue on a regular basis. e. This study and one conducted in 2004 by Bride also presented a number of factors that have received conflicting support, however being that we are all individuals and not statistics we feel like it is important to present these possible risks factors to you, because even if the research says they do not impact a statistically significant amount of people, they in most cases did impact some and some is more than one and we each could be that one. i. Other risk factors were: being female, providing sexual abuse treatment, past experience with personal trauma, intensity of trauma being expressed by the client. f. This is a lot of information, and we are doing this to increase your awareness, not your anxiety. In sessions 3, 4, and 5 we will be talking about detection, prevention, and what to do if you already have compassion fatigue. 3. Processing questions will focus on participants anxieties and concerns about the risk factors discussed. i. How do you feel after hearing about these risk factors? ii. What are your thoughts on the risk factors presented? Possible Variations: There are no variations for this lecturette. Special Considerations: If there are participants that are hearing impaired it may be necessary to develop a powerpoint slide or some other visual aide that will facilitate comprehension. Some participants, depending on their previous experience surrounding these issues, may become emotional during this session and so it is important to be flexible and allow adequate time for processing.