Compassion fatigue – the exhaustion stemming from the stress of always wanting to be empathic and helpful to those who suffer

Staying Sane in the Busy Season

Compassion Fatigue: It’s not life — it’s stress.  And it’s not you — it’s real.

Everybody who works in a shelter likely experiences compassion stress or compassion fatigue. A sweeping statement? Not at all. Experts say animal welfare workers have one of the highest reported incidence of compassion fatigue – the exhaustion stemming from the stress of always wanting to be empathic and helpful to those who suffer.

Exact reasons for this increased incidence are not known, but the guesses are valid. Shelter workers experience a multitude of difficulties daily: long hours, constant contact with the public, the stress of seeing people and animals suffer and the ethical stress of having to euthanize the very animals they care for. Stress related to euthanasia comes with its own set of problems, unique to the animal welfare profession:

• No other workers in the caregiving field must euthanize their patients.

• Workers are forced to act contrary to their own conscience or moral code.

• Workers are often condemned by their colleagues, the public and their own families.

Yet, even workers in no-kill shelters feel compassion stress and fatigue, as they continually witness animals lying sadly in their cages without being adopted, are not able to help as many animals as they want and have to turn away too many.

Shelter workers often combine all these factors with unresolved traumatic memories or life’s non-job-related stressors. And in the spring and summer, when more animals and people are out and more shelter staff are on vacation, the stress can increase exponentially.

Stress is created by always trying to meet demands — and fatigue is what comes from not managing the stress. “The results are cumulative,” says Karen Spaulding, training manager for American Humane. “So if you don’t take steps to deal with the stress, it just builds.”

Signs of Compass ion Fatigue

It’s easy to overlook the signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue as just physical responses to everyday life — who doesn’t get tired, depressed or irritated? But in reality, the following signs and symptoms, experienced a few at a time or in bulk, define compassion fatigue and need to be addressed and managed:

Unclear or confused emotions or feelings

•  Frequent complaining about “management”

•  Use or abuse of substances to “block out” bad days

• Compulsive behaviors, such as overspending, overeating or gambling

•  Poor self-care in regard to hygiene or appearance

•  Nightmares or flashbacks of traumatic events

•  Chronic physical ailments such as stomach problems and recurrent colds

•  Apathy or sadness, and no longer finding pleasure in favorite activities

•  Difficulty concentrating

•  Mental and physical exhaustion

•  Preoccupation with thoughts of work

•  Anger

•  Difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much

•  Loss of appetite or eating too much

•  Tendency to isolate from others

•  Feelings of disconnection toward clients and even animals

•  Avoidance of situations and activities that recall work

Managing Compassion Fatigue

Managing compassion stress and fatigue is an “inside” job. Workers must take the primary role in their own recovery. And, fortunately, there is a cure.

Step One: Diagnosis

The first step to recovery is for workers to identify their symptoms of fatigue and consider where they are in their career.

American Humane compassion fatigue expert Doug Fakkema defines four phases in dealing with stress and fatigue throughout a career in animal welfare.

In Phase One, shelter workers enter their careers “red hot and raring to go.” Workers are eager to work long days, nonstop, on behalf of animals. Their work borders on obsession, as they are fervent to employ simple solutions to complex problems and solve the problem of animal abuse and overpopulation instantly.

In Phase Two, Fakkema cites, “the bubble bursts and we crash and burn.” Workers feel they are repeatedly sending the same message about the importance of spaying and neutering and caring for animals, but to no avail. The boundless energy is lost, and nothing seems to be changing in animal welfare, despite all their efforts. Workers feel increasingly tired and begin isolating themselves from others. Some turn to food or alcohol. They feel defeated, and only experience tiny sparks of Phase One energy from time to time.

These sour feelings next turn to anger. In Phase Three, workers’ feelings of hopelessness turn outward, and they begin to feel rage and hate customers, friends and all people who do not immediately share their thoughts and beliefs. Workers lose their perspective of their effectiveness and become unable to connect with life.

In Phase Four, a point considered “acceptance,” the depression of Phase Two and the anger of Phase Three are replaced with “a new determination and understanding of the animal welfare mission.” They get the “big picture” and see that while all the problems facing animals cannot be solved through their efforts alone, they make a difference with hundreds of animals in their day-to-day work. Workers achieve balance in their lives and realize they can be more effective if they take care of themselves and come to work refreshed and recharged.

Phase Four is where workers should want to be, but it can take a while to get there. Everyone’s journey is individual and, says Fakkema, there’s no “magic bullet” to alleviate compassion fatigue and come to terms with how workers carry the load.

Step Two: Self-Care

The second stage to the cure is self-care. Workers have to change their mindsets to get to that elusive Phase Four. This means making time to take a break, go for a walk and get perspective on a situation. Most important, this means taking care of oneself through diet, exercise and balance between work and home.

A support system is also vital. Spaulding says she “vents” to a co-worker who she knows will not try to “fix” her situation, but will merely listen and show support. “The friend can’t take on your problems,” she warns. “If so, it can become toxic for your friend and you.”

Another aspect of self-care is to identify and avoid “trigger situations” — instances that workers know are stressful to them personally or professionally. For front desk workers, these triggers can come from dealing daily with the public. For humane educators, triggers can come from working with school systems, curricula and the reality of kids’ exposure to animal abuse. And for shelter kennel workers, triggers can come from seeing animals sad, depressed or euthanized.

“Everyone has something that can set them off — you have to learn how to either avoid or manage your responses to those triggers,” says Spaulding.

One thing that can help is determining and using “pocket responses”— rehearsed responses that workers can recite immediately, before their emotions get involved . For example, for some workers, a trigger is a client who, regarding euthanasia, is compelled to say, “Oh, your job is so awful, I would never be able to do that all day!” The stressed Phase Three reaction may involve a raised pulse, accusations and a desire to emit a stream of bad language.

However, the accepting Phase Four response is calm and practiced and immediately squelches the stress: “Well, fortunately, there are people like me who can. You can help make my job easier by encouraging others to spay and neuter their pets so there are fewer homeless animals in the world that have to be euthanized.”

Pocket Responses to Trigger Situations
 

Shelter Professionals Can Prevail

It is important for workers to understand that any fatigue, depression or irritability they experience is not just their imagination. The surge of summer activities is not just in their minds, and their problems are not merely personal. The benefits of recognizing and managing compassion stress and fatigue are positive change, personal transformation and a new resiliency. Achieving the balance of Phase Four can return “compassion satisfaction” to shelter workers’ jobs, revitalizing their careers and their belief in their ability to make a difference.

(08/09/08)
Used with permission of the American Humane Association/Amy Jakober,
from Protecting Animals Spring/Summer Issue 2008, Volume 25.1