Caring for Yourself and Your Team

Transcription

1 Caring for Yourself and Your Team Marvarene Oliver, Ed.D., LPC-S, LMFT-S Professor, Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

2 Why This Topic? Those who work in crisis and disaster situations can experience elevated rates of depression, stress disorders, and trauma-related disorders. It isn t always possible to prepare for the psychological challenges of what is seen and experienced because training cannot replicate what happens on the ground and it would be ethically questionable to do so. Most trainings do not explicitly include sufficient training about psychological self-care.

3 Systemic Complications Shortage of mental health workers in many areas Limited supply of emergency mental health care providers Insufficient training of mental health workers who work with those who directly deliver services License portability issues and difficulties can further restrict availability of services to those who directly deliver services to those in crisis

4 Risk Factors: Systemic Having no control over number of calls and demands Need to continue responding even after a particularly disturbing event Repeated exposure to crisis and/or disaster situations Sometimes overwhelming demands Suicide or significant mental/physical health issues of a peer Witnessing horrifying things Death of a child or personal knowledge of a victim Administrative questioning of one s actions

5 Potential Risk Factors: Personal Experience of prior trauma Experience of childhood trauma Experience of high level of physical and psychological hyper-arousal in period immediately following event Lack of training Those in middle years Experience of dissociative symptoms or psychological numbing at time of event

6 What Helps? Knowing what is normal No one is untouched Normal to feel sadness, fear, grief, anger, other emotions Normal to get tired Normal to sometimes feel overwhelmed Normal that your needs and ways of coping may be different than those of others on your team Normal that you sometimes need help Normal that normal things may seem boring, mundane

7 What Else Helps? For and as the team Deliberate focus on contributions, strengths, and abilities of self and team Acknowledgement of own and other team members feelings Opportunity to talk about experience with team/peers Attention to well-being of self and team members Attention to stress management in training Clarity about roles

8 For yourself Time with supportive family and friends (including talk about your experiences where where appropriate) Healthy ways to ease tension Focus on current goals and tasks Attention to physical health Noting symptoms and addressing them Re-engagement with regular routine Avoidance of drugs/alcohol to manage stress Permission to do something pleasurable Knowledge of own limits

9 Making a Personal Plan Three questions How do I want to think/feel/behave differently as a result of taking care of myself? What am I willing to do to achieve that? How will I know that I am doing it? How will others know I am doing it? What evidence will they see or experience?

10 Devising and Committing List at least three things you plan to do to improve your own and/or your team s self care. How will these things contribute to your own and/or your team s wellbeing? To commit, consider: Are these things (or the outcomes) valuable to me? Write them down and read them daily. Assess and celebrate successes. Recognize that slip-ups are not failures. Know that if it is to be, it is up to thee.

11 Resources Figley, C. R. (2002). Treating compassion fatigue. New York, NY: Bruner-Routledge. U.S. Department off Health and Human Services. (2005). A guide to managing stress in crisis response professionals. DHHS Pub. No. SMA Available: samhsa.gov/ken/pdf/sma- 4113/Stressmgt.pdf Online: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Institute of Mental Health Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration