Compassion Fatigue Solutions

As I am travelling quite a bit in the next few weeks, I won't stick to my weekly Sunday post but rather will add things of interest as they come across my "desk" (my desk at the moment is a shaking little table on a train that is running 1.5 hours late which means that I may or may not arrive to my destination in time to present a workshop. The joys of winter travelling continue!)

I would like to thank Dr Charles Figley for bringing the following article to our attention through the Traumatologist forum which is an email listserv. For anyone interested in being part of a compassion fatigue network that occasionally shares new findings/articles/book ideas: https://lists.fsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/traumatologist-forum

Basically, this and other research on VT is confirming what we all know experientially: that exposure to traumatic stories causes profound changes in helpers. This study will be published in the upcoming issue of the journal of Traumatology, and is based on the researcher’s Master’s project.

Crime takes heavy toll on legal minds
March 1st 2008 - By Lynnette Hoffman in The Australian

"SEAN Brown still remembers the details a decade on. From the horrific sequence of events right down to the specific type of bullets that were used; how many there were, where they went in, how long it took the victim to die.

Brown (not his real name) wasn't a witness, nor was he on the ground at the crime scene, but plenty of grisly stories have been embedded in his memory in 20-odd years as a senior crown prosecutor.

Brown has "seen a lot" over the span of his career, a career that has required him to immerse himself in the intricate circumstances of violent death and homicides, brutal rapes, war crimes, you name it. The sum total of all that, he says, is "not very healthy".

New research from Macquarie University, to be published in the international journal Traumatology, has found that criminal law work can have profoundly damaging psychological effects.

By and large, Brown has been rather fortunate in that regard. He has not suffered a debilitating depression, nor has he felt the need to seek professional assistance for mental health issues, or fallen into a pattern of abusing alcohol or drugs.

But that's not to say the work hasn't taken its toll. His dreams are sometimes affected, as are his relationships. "I tend to get moodier with my family and become more difficult to get on with at home," he says."

To read complete article, go to: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23292980-23289,00.html