Compassion Fatigue Solutions

Hi! Here I am, after a bit of a silence. Last week was Thanksgiving and thus no Monday post.

I am just back home after a long weekend in Chicago. Once every two years or so, I try to arrange childcare (my wonderful friend and I have a great arrangement where we help each other out) and get enough air miles to join my partner as he attends a scientific conference. The kids and I teasingly call him and his friends "neuronerds" as they are all neuroscientists and really into their science. The nerd quotient was fairly high this time around (25 000 attendees). But nerds can let their hair down with the best of them, I assure you.

Chicago is a beautiful city with stunning architecture. We walked a lot, visited the Art Institute of Chicago and ate one of the best meals I have ever had (no joke) at Topolobampo. If you love authentic mexican cuisine and are going to be in Chicago consider booking a table (way ahead of time) at this spot.

Upon my return, I had an interesting exchange with my eleven year old daughter. She reported feeling upset about all my travelling, and said that she liked it better when I didn't do so many speaking engagements, but rather stayed home all the time. I said to her "but sweetie, when I was doing clinical work 5 days a week, I often came home exhausted and grumpy, I was short-tempered with you, and I never had time or energy for anything. Now when I am not travelling, I am home a lot more, I can pick you up from school, we bake cookies, we have time for crafts, for errands...things are way better now." and she turned to me and said: "You were never grumpy. I never noticed that." Now, I don't think that is actually true, as her only goal at this time is to make her mother never leave the house again, but I thought "maybe I faked it better than I thought."

Ah, the joys of being a parent - guilt on tap every time you turn around.

In actual fact, I am home far more than I am away, and this is by far the best career choice I have ever made (and the most professionally satisfying choice to boot.) But it did make me think about the juggling most of do between all of the demands on our time.

It's never simple to simplify our lives. Ironically.

by Robert J. Wicks, Oxford University Press

This short, reflective book was written specifically for clinicians: psychologists, mental health counsellors and social workers. It will be most useful to those with a background in clinical psychology who do face to face work with clients on a regular basis.

Dr Robert Wicks is a psychologist and a professor at Loyola College in Maryland. "A recognized expert in the prevention of secondary stress, in 1994 he was responsible for the psychological debriefing of relief workers evacuated from Rwanda during that country's bloody civil war." (from his book bio)

I was thrilled to see that Dr Wicks centers his approach on the use of positive psychology and mindfulness.

Robert Wicks explains his goal in writing the book as: "to introduce and highlight those areas that can help renew clinicians in today's challenging climate. It is amazing how little it can take to change the emotional tide in favor of such a beneficial move. Small alterations can sometimes jumpstart a positive step to a healthier attitude more than disputing dysfunctional thoughts ever can."

Chapters headings are:

Sensing the dangers: Chronic and acute secondary stress
Enhancing resiliency: strengthening one's own self-care protocol
Replenishing the self: Solitude, silence and mindfulness
Daily debriefing; Mindfulness and positive psychology

My conclusion: A lovely erudite book on self care for clinicians who are ready to reflect on their own journey of compassion fatigue and self care.

I am just back from Yellowknife where I presented at a conference organised by the Federal department of Justice called "Northern Responses and Approaches to Victims of Crime: Building on Strength and Resilience." Over 250 victim support workers from across Canada met for three days to share ideas, research findings and to connect with each other. This was the first meeting of its kind and it was, in my opinion, a complete success. I had the opportunity to meet victim assistance workers from all areas of Canada, from Whitehorse to Rankin Inlet to Thompson Manitoba to Kuujjuak (my childhood villlage) in Northern Quebec. I have been to many conferences over the years, and this was the friendliest, most well organised of them all.

Why hold a victim support conference with a special focus on the North? Here is some sobering data from the Policy Centre for Victims Issues (PCVI) press release:

"According to the 2004 General Social Survey, residents of the territories were three times more likely than provincial residents to experience a violent victimization such as sexual assault, robbery or physical assault (315 versus 106 incidents per 1,000 population). Residents of the North also experienced higher levels of spousal violence than their counterparts in the provinces.

Approximately 12% of northern residents reported being the victim of some form of violence at the hands of a current and/or previous spouse or common-law partner in the five years preceding the survey. This compares to 7% of the population in the provinces. Residents of Nunavut were also far more likely to have been victims of spousal violence (22%) than residents of the Northwest Territories (11%) and the Yukon Territory (9%).

Similarly, police-reported crime rates in the territories were substantially higher than rates in the rest of Canada. Specifically, in 2005, crime rates in the North were over four times higher than rates in the provinces (33,186 compared to 7,679 incidents per 100,000 population). In 2005, the Northwest Territories had the highest police-reported crime rate among the three territories at 41,245 incidents per 100,000 population. This rate was 1.3 times higher than the rate in Nunavut, 1.8 times higher than that in Yukon and nearly three times higher than that in Saskatchewan, the province with the highest provincial crime rate (14,320)."

We heard a captivating and reflective keynote address by Justice Gerald Morin, Deputy Judge of the Territorial Court of the NWT and creator of the Cree Court in Saskatchewan. We were also were incredibly fortunate to have an evening performance by Leela Gilday, an award-winning Yellowknife singer and songwriter. Leela's songs were deeply moving and her voice was incredible. I was very glad that my meek keynote address came before her and not after her powerful performance!

Conferences such as this one offer all of us the opportunity to stop for a few days (well not really stop, it was a jam-packed agenda and people were working hard) but certainly the chance to get out of the trenches to connect and reflect on the work that we do. I met some victim support workers who had some significant challenges in their own lives (dealing with fostering several children with fetal alcohol syndrome, to name just one) and the complexity of offering services in a remote community, where everyone knows you and where you are often the end of the line. To all of these workers, I offer my most sincere thanks for their warmth, their open hearts and their willingness to participate in the workshops I offered.

This will be a short post as I am just touching down in between trips, coming in from Charlottetown, doing my laundry, kissing the kids and heading straight back out to Yellowknife. (Well, I did bake some banana-bran muffins too, in a probably futile attempt to have my kids eat healthily while I am away, and, yes, I know I have control issues...). This week, I will be taking part in a large conference for professionals who work with victims of crime, organised by the Department of Justice for the North West Territories and Nunavut.

During my pit stop in Kingston, I had a chance to go hear some music. Live music can be so good for the soul (when it's good, I heard some pretty awful stuff last night) but I also heard the fantastic Canadian folk duo Dala. They can harmonize like nobody's business and have a great sense of humor and wonderful musical sense. It was such a treat.

I'll write more when I am back from Yellowknife. I hope you all have a good week, with a bit time to listen to some music perhaps?

Photo from MNR

Vous connaissez l'initiative d'art thérapeutique montréalaise des "Impatients," dont la porte-parole est Clémence Desrochers? Sinon, lisez un peu et voyez ce que vous en pensez...Quelle superbe projet!

Voici une citation du site web des Impatients:

"Le centre Les Impatients est un lieu d’expression et d’interprétation de l’art thérapeutique et de l’art brut. Il a comme double mission :

-D’offrir un lieu d'expression artistique aux personnes atteintes de problèmes de santé mentale.

-De favoriser les échanges avec la communauté par la diffusion de leurs réalisations.

Historique

En 1989, la Fondation des maladies mentales, de concert avec l’Association des galeries d’art contemporain de Montréal, expérimente un atelier d’art-thérapie à l’Hôpital Louis-H. Lafontaine sous la direction de madame Suzanne Hamel, art-thérapeute.

En 1992, la Fondation des maladies mentales appuie la mise sur pied de la Fondation pour l’art thérapeutique et l’art brut du Québec qui ouvre un nouvel atelier à Pointe-aux-Trembles.

En 1999, la Fondation pour l’art thérapeutique et l’art brut du Québec choisit de se faire connaître sous l’appellation Les Impatients et ouvre ses portes en plein cœur du centre-ville afin de permettre à un plus large public de bénéficier des ateliers d’art-thérapie et de musicothérapie. Ces nouveaux locaux offrent des espaces pour la diffusion des œuvres des Impatients en présentant une programmation riche et diversifiée d’événements.

Parle-moi d’amour, événement principal de l’année, est une exposition-encan réunissant des artistes en arts visuels et des Impatients. Cette campagne de financement, qui a lieu au mois de février, est une source de revenus essentielle à la poursuite des ateliers qui sont offerts gratuitement aux participants. À cet événement s’est ajouté l’édition du coffret Mille mots d’amour."
Fin de la citation

Mille Mots D'amour

"[...] Cette année, Mille Mots d’amour en lecture en est à sa cinquième édition et on y trouve des lettres aussi prestigieuses que celles de Clémence DesRochers, Fred Pellerin, Rita Lafontaine, Lise Dion, Carole Laure, Nancy Huston, Leonard Cohen, même une inédite de Jacques Brel adressée à Clairette, son amie.

Mille Mots d’amour en lecture est un coffret qui regroupe 141 lettres d’amour de célébrités, journalistes, médecins, jeunes du secondaire et «impatients» qui profitent des ateliers de création de la Fondation Les Impatients. Grâce à la vente du coffret, cet organisme peut continuer d’offrir ses services à quelque 300 personnes atteintes de maladie mentale chaque année. On espère cette année amasser 80 000 $." Agnès Gaudet, Extrait du journal de montreal, 18-01-2009

Pour ma part, après avoir entendu une lecture d'une lettre d'amour au futur de Jacques Attali, j'ai immédiatement commandé mon coffret des lettres de 2009. Cette lettre m'a complètement bouleversée. J'aimerais bien quelle soit lue le jour (très lointain) de mes funérailles, mais je m'inquiète que dire cela à mes proches sera perçu comme une requête sinon inquiétante, du moins bizarre! Enfin, c'est l'effet que ça m'a fait - c'est une lettre pleine d'espoir et j'aimerais bien que ça finisse comme ça, quand j'aurai 100 ans.

I recently asked an audience of about 100 people how many of them practiced or had ever tried relaxation training and/or meditation. Approximately 10 people raised their hands.

This is not an anomaly, it's the usual response I get. It's similar to the response I get when I ask groups how many of them would say that they:

1) Get enough sleep on a regular basis
2) Eat 3 healthy meals per day, with lots of fruit and vegetables, reducing caffeine, saturated fats and salt.
3) Exercise 3-4 times a week
4) Take breaks during the day to refuel and just chill out

Last time I asked this question, one person out of 150 said yes.

hmmm.

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, you know that I feel very strongly about the importance of eating healthily for many reasons (cancer prevention, keeping diabetes at bay, increasing our immunity, weight control, the list goes on) but I am also very aware of the many obstacles we face: time crunch, financial constraints, food dislikes to name a few.

The exercise piece is tricky. A lot of people say to me "I'm not in good enough shape to go to the gym, I feel very self-conscious" and I totally respect that. A friend of mine (who went on to lose a significant amount of weight and run a marathon) could not walk around the block with me without having to stop to catch her breath. But she persevered, walked a bit faster each week, then started alternating running with walking (10 minutes of running, one minute of walking), an approach to running that is highly recommended by coaches at running clinics. It took a long time and a lot of hard work, but she started out small and eventually the results were life-changing.

Isn't that always the best way? To take small, realistic steps?

I invite you to reflect on the four categories above and see whether there is an area that you can celebrate. Is there something you are feeling particularly pleased with, in terms of self care? These can be very small steps (increasing my vegetable intake by one serving, taking 5 minutes off each day for the past week, etc.).

What would you commit to working on that is realistic and achievable for the week to come?

I heard about this great blog yesterday called 1000 awesome things. The author's goal is to compile 1000 every day activities that bring you joy: "1000 Awesome Things is just a time-ticking countdown of 1000 awesome things. Launched a few months ago and updated every weekday."

So, take a break from your work and go read this hilarious blog. I really liked #679 Old School Sugar Cereal and #722 Watching seniors do water aerobics.