Remembering to Care for Ourselves: Compassion Fatigue, Trauma, and Burnout

We are currently in a landscape where we are being asked to provide more support to individuals who need services with fewer resources. While we care for others, whether they are clients, family, friends, or members of our community who are challenged by substance use, in recovery, or with other biopsychosocial stressors. We often overlook the importance of caring for ourselves while focusing on the needs of others in recovery. Traumatization, Compassion Fatigue, and Burnout are very real, regardless of where you are in the care continuum. Recovery Peers, Clinicians, Nurses, Doctors, and the like are challenged as we care for others. We add to this conversation the many challenges that individuals with or working with may have, including trauma and other social determinants of health, and the need to be mindful when our past or present trauma is being activated or reactivated. This workshop will begin to explore how we can manage to care for ourselves while also caring for others. How do we manage the challenges of providing more services with fewer resources and remain connected to why we care for others, both at work and in our personal lives?

Learning Objectives

1. Identify where individuals may land on the caring for others scale and the impact on their current functioning, both in their professional and personal lives

2. Differentiate compassion fatigue versus burnout

3. Understand the impact of retraumatizing trauma and its impact both professionally and personally

4. Develop a comprehensive self-care plan that is sustainable and addresses key areas of concern related to compassion fatigue, reactivated trauma, and burnout.

Continuing Education Credits Available: Western New York Rural Area Health Education Center, Inc. (WNY R-AHEC) is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Boards for Social Work (#SW-0685), Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Mental Health Practitioners (#MHC-0268), and Speech Language Pathology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers, physical therapists and assistants, occupational therapists, and assistants, licensed mental health counselors, and speech language pathologists.

CLICK HERE to register.