Compassion Fatigue - in Health Care

In Health Care

Caregivers for dependent people can also experience compassion fatigue; this can become a cause of abusive behavior in caring professions. It results from the taxing nature of showing compassion for someone whose suffering is continuous and unresolvable. One may still care for the person as required by policy, however, the natural human desire to help them is significantly diminished. This phenomenon also occurs for professionals involved with long term health care. It can also occur for loved ones who have institutionalized family members. These people may develop symptoms of depression, stress, and trauma. Those who are primary care providers for patients with terminal illnesses are at a higher risk of developing these symptoms. In the medical profession, this is often described as "burnout": the more specific terms secondary traumatic stress and vicarious trauma are also used. Some professionals may be predisposed to compassion fatigue due to personal trauma.

Charles R. Figley, co-author of Compassion Fatigue: Coping With Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder in Those Who Treat the Traumatized, states that, “there is a cost to caring. Professionals who listen to clients’ stories of fear, pain, and suffering may feel similar fear, pain, and suffering because they care. Sometimes we feel we are losing our sense of self to the clients we serve. Therapists who work with rape victims, for example, often develop a general disgust for rapists that extends to all males. Those who have worked with victims of other types of crime often ‘feel paranoid’ about their own safety and seek greater security. Ironically, the most effective therapists are most vulnerable to this mirroring or contagion effect. Those who have enormous capacity for feeling and expressing empathy tend to be more at risk of compassion stress”.

In a study done on child welfare workers, Mary Van Hook and Michael Rothenberg stated that, “compassion fatigue/vicarious trauma refers to work related, secondary exposure to extremely stressful events. Symptoms are usually rapid in onset. They can include trauma symptoms such as being afraid, difficulty sleeping, images of the event popping into your mind, and avoiding things that remind you of the event. Compassion fatigue/vicarious trauma/secondary traumatic stress have been increasingly identified as risks for professionals working with individuals who have experienced trauma. As described previously, the lives of clients in the child welfare system are frequently marked by violence and other forms of trauma. Repeated exposure to the violence experienced by clients can create a shift in the counselors’ perceptions of the world and themselves and increases their sense of their own vulnerability. It can disrupt the counselor’s sense of safety, trust, sense of self-esteem, sense of control, and relationships with significant others”