Why Caregivers Are at Risk of Compassion Fatigue

The tripledemic of COVID-19, influenza, and RSV has had a devasting impact on our country. In many cases, this tripledemic has served as a catalyst for people to seek support from behavioral healthcare providers, such as Licensed Mental Health Counselors.

Mental relief is desperately needed given the catastrophic levels of individual and collective human suffering. People of all ages are still suffering secretly during this national mental health crisis both at home and in the public domains of the workplace and schools.

According to Mental Health America, the impact on young people has been particularly stark, with 11.5% currently experiencing severe major depression.

What is compassion fatigue? Licensed Mental Health Counselors (LMHCs) show sympathy and empathy as vital caregivers, providing psychotherapy to those suffering. However, because of their role in helping and healing others, they are likely to experience compassion fatigue.

Compassion fatigue results in feelings of physical, emotional, and psychological exhaustion for the caregiver. These feelings are directly linked to repeated exposure to other people’s trauma, grief, and stress. In fact, compassion fatigue is often referred to as secondary trauma since the caregiver is traumatized vicariously.

The caregiver experiences trauma through the lens of the lived experiences of the sufferer and through their own life’s context. In essence, the caregiver is exposed to the traumatized person and not the actual traumatic event. The caregiver could be a physician, teacher/professor, pastor, first responder, or military personnel. Although an individual’s traumatic experiences are filtered through the lens of trained helping and healing professionals, psychotherapy professionals are not immune from experiencing compassion fatigue as caring and the ability to show empathy are the fundamental aspects of the role.

Often, compassion fatigue can be viewed as an occupational hazard as the caregiver repeatedly and overwhelmingly bears witness to another’s suffering. Consequently, compassion fatigue could impact the caregiver’s capacity to show appropriate sympathy and empathy toward the person they are caring for.

Compassion fatigue has various additional symptoms, which may include anxiety, anger, irritability, feeling numb or detached, loss of sense of purpose and fulfillment, feeling exhausted and depleted, feeling isolated and withdrawn, and changes in sleeping and eating patterns. Compassion fatigue symptoms are similar to the symptoms of burnout (a component of compassion fatigue), but their origins are different.

Compassion fatigue stems from taking on the suffering and pain of others. Burnout stems from being overworked, feeling that they are not being adequately appreciated or appropriately valued, and possibly not having enough resources to perform necessary tasks.

In short, compassion fatigue is primarily related to re-experiencing the trauma of others, whereas burnout is more about the inability to cope with environmental stressors of workplace conditions.

Treatment is available

The good news is that both compassion fatigue and burnout can be effectively treated. LMHCs can help adults and youths to increase their ability to cope with stress and trauma through mindfulness and meditation, as well as practicing self-compassion and other self-care techniques.

LMHCs can help employers, schools, and community organizations to identify and adopt trauma-informed practices to help mitigate re-traumatization to promote resiliency, as well as increase productivity, satisfaction, and performance in all spheres of life.

Equally important, these efforts can help to address the societal stigma associated with mental healthcare in both our micro and macro-communities.