Compassion Fatigue Solutions

(photo from Tema)

A few days ago, my daughter and I caught a public service announcement (PSA) on TV that took our breath away. Maybe you've seen it - During the first few frames, cute little kids in various emergency personel uniforms state their career dreams: "I want to be a police officer" says a sweet 6ish year old girl, "I want to be a firefighter" says a gorgeous nine year old boy, and so on. Then, the ad returns to each one and they continue: "But I'm scared..., (and now I am basing the rest on recall) "I'm scared that my job is going to hurt me, I'm scared of the nightmares, the horrible images, of not being able to get them out of my head. I'm scared that helping other people is going to permanently damage me" and gradually you realise that this is an ad about PTSD (the ad was far better that my clumsy attempt at describing it!).

The hockey game were were watching was "Don Cherry Military Night in Kingston" - an OHL game in honour of Canadian military personnel. There were several PTSD awareness-raising messages throughout the night and the aim of the whole evening was clearly to convey to soldiers of all stripes that PTSD is a common problem for military personnel and that help is available.

Having worked with the military for the past decade, I believe that this message needs to be conveyed to military staff in as many ways as possible. There is still a huge stigma about PTSD among the Forces - many military clients have told me that they would never want the label as they see it as a sign of weakness and they fear that if they sought help for it, they might be demoted or, worse, discharged from the military. There is also a perception among many soldiers that it's a "copout label" - sometimes, they say, used dishonestly to seek a pension and benefits. Perhaps that is true on occasion, but my own clinical experience and the data shows that there are far more genuine cases of PTSD than malingerers and this perception is yet another obstacle for soldiers who really need help.

So with PTSD, we are battling many layers of cultural assumptions, prejudice, institutional dysfunctions and shame. An uphill battle indeed. Meanwhile, the soldiers with undiagnosed PTSD continue to struggle on their own, often using alcohol to numb out, turning their domestic lives into total turmoil, lashing out at their spouses, their children and at themselves.

But let's go back to the TV ad with the kids:

It turns out the PSA was produced by a Canadian organisation called Tema: the Tema Conter Memorial Trust. Maybe you have heard of it? They are not an organisation I know anything about, so I went to their website to take a look.

Their story is as follows:
The charity was founded by Mr. Vince Savoia, an attending paramedic at the murder scene of Ms. Tema Conter in 1988. Upon coping with post-traumatic stress as a result of this horrible episode, Mr. Savoia created the Tema Conter Memorial Trust. The trust’s purpose is two-fold: to honour the memory of Ms. Tema Conter and call attention to the acute trauma encountered by emergency services workers. These courageous and compassionate individuals are haunted by the scenes they encounter on a regular basis, and they need our help. Because heroes are human.

If you go to their website they also have a very powerful second ad called "Hands".

On a personal level, it was a great ad as it led my daughter and I into an interesting discussion. She said "That's the work you do, isn't it mom? Help people who are hurt by their work?" and I said "Well, yes, and I help the people who help the people who are hurt by their work and that, in turns sometimes hurts them too." "Wow", she said "What a strange job you do!" And I thought "Yes, what a strange, painful, moving, wonderful, rewarding job."

There was a PTSD awareness-raising Major League baseball game this summer. It was for US military personnel and had a similar message: this is common, this is normal, get help, you are no less of a man for suffering from this.

Now, it would be pretty cool if we had a PSA about vicarious trauma one day, but I wonder how it would go over? How would we, the helpers feel? How would the public react to hearing how hard we sometimes find our jobs? A PSA about Vicarious Trauma. How about that?