Newton's Law: The Cost of Caring
Melissa Kaiser, LBSW | September 19 | 11:15 am-12:15 pm
Topic: Direct Service | Knowledge Level: Beginner
Law enforcement, service providers, and medical responders experience sustained exposure to child maltreatment, sexual assaults, and human trafficking. The resulting effects can be devastating and include substance abuse, increased rates of suicide, marital distress, depression and anxiety, and decreased physical wellness. This presentation will focus on learning more about vicarious trauma and gaining tools to assess our personal experience with vicarious trauma to improve our wellbeing. The presenter will differentiate between vicarious trauma and secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, burn out, moral suffering, and post-traumatic stress disorder to understand the impact high-stress work environments have on the wellbeing of those in the profession. Discussion regarding personal experiences, cultural changes within the workplace, and the normalization of vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue will be a main priority during this session. The presenter will include various resilience strategies to assist attendees in self-care routines, which also ensures less turnover and better services provided to the victims they serve.
Presentation Objectives:
• Assist attendees to recognize their own levels of compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma by learning about them and the related effects of high-stress work
• Discuss the need to normalize vicarious trauma in high stress work and access tools and resources to improve their personal and professional lives
• Describe how to advocate for culture change in the workplace by discussing the importance of leadership buy-in and tools to make a difference