What Is Compassion Fatigue?

ompassion fatigue is a real problem that many people face: doctors, nurses, and child welfare workers, to name a few. For this paper, I will be focusing on compassion fatigue as it pertains to child welfare workers. Compassion fatigue is also called secondary stress trauma, or STS. When a child welfare worker works with children who have experienced trauma, it sometimes transfers onto themselves, that is- they can begin to show symptoms of trauma or experience a lot of stress. This can affect the worker physically, emotionally, & even spiritually. Physical symptoms that can happen are: headaches, digestive problems, sleep disturbances, fatigue, and even cardiac symptoms like chest pain. Some of the emotional problems that happen are: mood

There is no way to avoid this. CPS exists to be sure that children who are in abusive and/or neglectful situations are removed from them and placed with a family that can properly care for them. This means that sometimes a worker is exposed directly to abuse and/or neglect, if they are there physically to remove a child from the home. Direct exposure often leads to compassion fatigue. According to Figley (1995b), secondary stress trauma is “the natural, consequent behaviors and emotions resulting from knowledge about a traumatizing event experienced by a significant other. It is the stress resulting from helping or wanting to help a traumatized or suffering person”. I think this response is a natural response that many people feel. For example, many people have watched commercials asking for donations for children in underdeveloped countries who often go without food and are starving. If you have ever watched a commercial like that and felt sadness for the children involved, then you have experienced compassion fatigue, although on a much smaller scale then child welfare workers

The first is social worker competence, which is if the social worker has the correct skills and training needed for the job. Second, “a lack of realistic professional expectations” (Kanter, p. 291) meaning a social worker who goes into it thinking they can save the world is more likely to develop compassion fatigue. The third factor is “cumulative countertransference responses from a caseload of clients with similar difficulties” (Kanter p. 292). The fourth factor is “Some clients elicit ubiquitous countertransference responses which tend to affect most social workers in a similar manner. For example, a chronically suicidal client can elicit intense feelings of helplessness among workers throughout an agency. A particularly unkempt client can elicit disgust and revulsion in most workers” (Kanter p. 292). For the last two factors, they both mean that it is inevitable that some transference and countertransference is bound to happen. If a social worker consistently takes cases where there is like trauma, they are going to take on the feelings of their clients. If a worker consistently has a client who has feelings of helplessness, as many children will have those feelings, they will be projected onto the worker. Lastly, “some clients elicit idiosyncratic countertransference responses which have a unique impact of specific workers” (Kanter, p. 292).