This document discusses self-care and the importance of self-care policies in the workplace, especially for helping professionals. It defines key terms like self-care, burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma. It notes that helping professionals are at high risk for these conditions due to chronic empathy use and exposure to trauma. The document recommends trauma-informed self-care practices and policies for organizations, including training, manageable caseloads, surveys to assess risks, and employee assistance programs, to support staff well-being and prevent turnover.

1. Self Care
and
Self-Care Policy in the Workplace
By
Roxy Falsetto

2. "In traditional Native American teaching, it is said
that each time you heal someone you give away a
piece of yourself until, at some point, you will
require healing" (Bush, 2009, p.26).

3. What is Self Care?
Self-care can be a broad topic because it has many meanings based on
the context in which it is being used.
• To the layperson, self-care may be defined as being independently
active to initiate and maintain personal well-being throughout life.
• On a global scale, the World Health Organization defined self-care
as, “activities individuals, families, and communities undertake with
the intention of enhancing health, preventing disease, limiting illness
and restoring health.”
(Lucock, Gillard, Adams, Simons, White, & Edwards, 2011; Profitt, 2008).

4. • In the context of the helping professions, self-care is also an ethical obligation.
• Something the helping professional must personally and professionally take
seriously.
• Especially practitioners with a pre-existing disorders such as anxiety, mood, or
personal trauma history because:
• They may be at greater risk of experiencing trauma related conditions
• In maintaining their self-care, they gain and maintain positive energy and
regenerate their empathy
(Lucock, Gillard, Adams, Simons, White, & Edwards, 2011; Profitt, 2008).

5. Trauma-Informed Self-Care (TISC).
TISC is what most if not all helping professionals follow. TISC calls for the helping
professional to be aware of their emotional experiences when treating traumatized clients, and
to plan active coping strategies, such as:
• set healthy boundaries and limits with clients
• engage in supervision
• attend continuing education on trauma and its effects on the professional
• balance caseloads
• practice stress management techniques
• pursue therapy that is centered around the issues that trigger you at work
• create a plan that balances work and life
• restore physical, mental, and spiritual health
(Moore et al., 2011; Profitt, 2008). (Salloum et al., 2015).

6. Due to the high turnover rates in the helping professions more
attention is being put toward combating burnout, compassion fatigue,
and vicarious trauma; by incorporating self-care practices into their
daily lives.

7. Burnout
“Professional burnout can be defined as a state of physical, emotional,
psychological, and spiritual exhaustion resulting from chronic
exposure to (or practice with) populations that are vulnerable or
suffering.”
• Human service work is said to be the single largest risk factor for developing professional
burnout.
• This risk factor could be contributed to the practitioner’s ability to repress uncomfortable
emotions while at the same time having to use empathy.
• Not necessarily the stressor that causes the burnout, but the practitioner's response to the
stressful situation.
• Practitioners who tend to be more idealistic, highly motivated, and highly empathic tend to
be the first to experience burnout.
(Bush, 2009”(Newell & MacNeil, 2010, p.58). ).

8. Three Distinct Domains to Burnout:
• Emotional exhaustion
• Depersonalization
• A reduced sense of personal accomplishment
(Adams et al., 2008; 2007; Bush, 2009; Davies et al., 2008; Newell & MacNeil, 2010).

9. Compassion Fatigue
Unchecked burnout can reach a new level in the form of compassion
fatigue (CF).
Compassion fatigue is defined as a syndrome that is a combination of
secondary traumatic stress ( secondhand post-traumatic stress disorder
from listening to and internalizing firsthand trauma) and professional
burnout, with specific symptoms. The symptoms associated with CF
are both emotional and physical and result from a chronic use of
empathy.
CF:
• Is Cumulative
• Is Pervasive
• Can happen suddenly without warning.
(Adams et al., 2008; 2007; Bush, 2009; Davies et al., 2008; Newell & MacNeil, 2010; Portnoy, 2011; Salloum et al., 2015).

10. These symptoms may sound similar to those associated with burnout.
However in addition to burnout symptoms, practitioners presenting
with CF tend to experience:
• a reduced capacity for empathy
• a reduced sense of career reward
• a loss of meaning and hope
• feelings of anxiety
• difficulty concentrating
• Irritability
• sleep deprivation
• deep emotional numbing
• flashbacks of their client’s traumatic event
• past trauma memories
(Adams et al., 2008; 2007; Bush, 2009; Davies et al., 2008; Newell & MacNeil, 2010; Portnoy, 2011; Salloum et al., 2015).

11. CF can have long-term effects that can lead to the practitioner
escaping from life by using:
• Food
• Drugs
• Alcohol
• Other forms of addiction.
Through self-care and balanced empathy, the practitioner will find a
healthy balance between emotional over involvement with patients
and emotional distance.
(Adams et al., 2008; 2007; Bush, 2009; Davies et al., 2008; Newell & MacNeil, 2010; Portnoy, 2011; Salloum et al., 2015).

12. Vicarious Trauma
Burnout and CF have thresholds and going beyond each one can be detrimental
to the practitioner's entire cognitive framework. It is believed that once cognitive
schemas are set in place they are to remain unchanged. However unchecked
burnout and CF can lead to the most destructive of all trauma-related stress
conditions, vicarious trauma.
“Vicarious traumatization refers to a ‘process of [cognitive] change resulting
from [chronic] empathic engagement with trauma survivors’”. This immediate
onset in “cognitive shifts” can change a practitioner's:
• sense of self
• worldview
• sense of safety
• ability to trust
• sense of control
• spiritual beliefs
(Bush, 2009; Newell & MacNeil, 2010; Profitt, 2008; Salloum et al., 2015).

13. The practitioner dealing with vicarious trauma may find it hard to
relate to others, due to the fundamental aspects of their life
transforming. Hence, their identity changes and their inability to
regulate intense feelings may cause loved ones to avoid them, and they
may lose credibility with their colleagues. This chain of events may
cause the practitioner to distance himself/herself altogether from
society. Once a practitioner reaches this point of vicarious trauma, it is
imperative that they seek psychological intervention.
(Bush, 2009; Newell & MacNeil, 2010; Profitt, 2008; Salloum et al., 2015).

14. Self-Care Policy in the Workplace
Research indicates organizations that helping professionals work for
may contribute to trauma-related stress conditions. This realization
may have to do with:
• excessively high caseloads
• lack of control or influence over agency policies and procedures
• unfairness in organization structure and discipline
• low peer, and supervisory support
• poor agency and on-the-job training
(Bush, 2009; Newell, & MacNeil)

15. There are noticeable behavior indications that take place within a
facility that does not practice TISC. The following behaviors should be
warning signs of burnout, CF, and vicarious trauma:
• not showing up for work
• habitual tardiness
• chronic fatigue
• poor client interaction
• incompletion of organizational duties.
(Bush, 2009; Davies et al., 2008; Newell & MacNeil, 2010; Profitt, 2008; Salloum et al., 2015)

16. • Organizations that specialize in caring for the psychological health
of others, and implement TISC policy for their helping
professionals, may eliminate burnout, compassion fatigue, and
vicarious trauma.
• The overall energy and well-being of those working in the facility
may improve.
• Research shows that facilities who have a TISC policy in place
report that their staff shows higher levels of compassion satisfaction,
retention, and engagement.
• Establishing a TISC policy will have a positive effect on all
stakeholder within the facility.
(Bush, 2009; Davies et al., 2008; Newell & MacNeil, 2010; Profitt, 2008; Salloum et al., 2015)

17. An organization with a strong TISC policy will include self-care within its mission statement.
A strong TISC policy will incorporate:
• training on burnout, CF, and vicarious trauma for all new staff members
• realistic caseloads that are established and agreed upon
• burnout, CF, and vicarious trauma survey instruments every six months to assess for
organizational and individual risks
• An organization website to give clients an outlet to anonymously express their appreciation
for the services they received
• employee written goal assignments that are focused on goals for work and life
• These goals should be revisited and revised every six months
• employee assistance programs
• to assist each other with excess clerical work and possibly taking on a client when a
colleague is unable
• To add emotional support
(Adams et al., 2008; 2007; Bush, 2009; Davies et al., 2008; Newell & MacNeil, 2010; Salloum et al., 2015).

18. Thank You!

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