If you've been on the job for any amount of time, I'd venture to say you've become a bit jaded in how you view the world. It's bound to happen when you deal with people on their worst days, over and over and over again.
That doesn't change the fact that most of us ARE helpers and MOST of us got into this job to help others in some way. But what happens when we put helping others and ensuring their needs are met, without making sure our own needs are met or helping ourselves when the demands of the job get to be too much?
In this episode, Barbara Rubel, police daughter, author, keynote speaker, and compassion fatigue expert, who lost her retired Police Sergeant father to suicide, tells us what happens when we do that.
She explains that compassion Fatigue is when you are concerned for someone who's been traumatized and you truly want to help them, through whatever role you are in and you immediately succumb to the demands of what THEY need over your own needs. You are compassionate and you WANT to help...but you're not helping yourself and burning yourself out.
She also describes and differentiates compassion fatigue from vicarious trauma and moral injury. ALL very fascinating and definitely things that LEOs and first responders in general are faced with. Knowing some of this definitely would've helped earlier in my career...not only knowing there was a name for what I was dealing with, but also that I wasn't alone...like many of us feel.
This is a very eye opening and informative episode, that I hope provides YOU some insight, like it did for me.
Make sure to follow Barbara on LinkedIn, here, and grab a copy of the book she co-authored with Jason Palamara (that I am featured in), Living Blue: Helping Law Enforcement officers and their families thrive from recruitment to retirement, here. You can also visit her website, here.
If you haven't already...make sure you follow me on LinkedIn and on Instagram at @_nextshift_ AND @the_jessflores
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See you Next Shift
