Compassion Fatigue- The silent epidmic for public health social workers

Compassion Fatigue (CF) is becoming recognized in helping professions as a silent disease which is beginning to impact people in the helping professions who are increasingly stressed, and impacted by trauma for prolonged periods of time. Social workers, involved in disaster management are more likely to suffer from compassion fatigue. This presentation will describe the prevalence of Compassion Fatigue, identify some of the signs and symptoms of CF, differentiate CF from ‘burnout” and present some findings from social workers working post disaster and trauma management. Strategies for public health intervention will be explored as strategies to mitigate this condition for social workers pursuing disaster management.