As human service professionals, it is difficult to avoid vicarious or secondary trauma. Helping individuals and their families while listening to firsthand experiences of past trauma ca

As human service professionals, it is difficult to avoid vicarious or secondary trauma. Helping individuals and their families while listening to firsthand experiences of past trauma can cause apathy and compassion fatigue.

Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum,

• Read the article, A "Dangerous Paradox" in Human Services.
• Read the article, Compassion Fatigue and Spiritual Leaders: A Pilot Study.
• Review the video, Compassion Fatigue: Is Compassion a Finite Resource?
• Review the video, How to Deal with Compassion Fatigue—8 Tips for Self-Care and Love

In your initial discussion post,

• Discuss how human service administrators can empower their staff to combat compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma.
• Describe the impact of low pay, inadequate materials, and unsupportive leadership that mistreat human service professionals.
• Evaluate three ways that a toxic workplace culture makes it difficult to hire new employees.
• Critique innovative solutions which help address the challenge of limited resources available to human service administrators for staffing and service delivery.