Discuss how human service administrators can empower their staff to combat compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma. Compassion fatigue is a real issue and if not taken care of can lead to burnout. “Compassion fatigue refers to stress or exhaustion of one’s mental or physical well-being from caring or wanting to care for a sick or traumatized patient” (Boggs, 2024, p. 1).
Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts. Each of your
responses to your classmates should be at least 150 words in length,
and include an APA formatted scholarly resource. In your response
post, please provide a thoughtful reply to promote discussion,
critical thinking, and class interaction, and provide an open-ended
question for each of your colleagues.
DISCUSSION 1 (Tameka)
Discuss how human service administrators can empower their staff to combat compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma.
Compassion fatigue is a real issue and if not taken care of can lead to burnout. “Compassion fatigue refers to stress or exhaustion of one’s mental or physical well-being from caring or wanting to care for a sick or traumatized patient” (Boggs, 2024, p. 1). Compassion fatigue can impact anyone who is caring for someone and people who experience this may show signs of weakness, depression, sadness, exhaustion, anxiety, and hopelessness. People usually feel pain while trying to ease someone else’s. Human services administrators can empower their staff by promoting self-care habits and resilience training. They can also advocate having counselors on duty or on call to speak to employees when they need to. “Vicarious trauma can develop when a practitioner is exposed to the retelling of a traumatic event by a client. Much like the experience of direct trauma, VT may affect a practitioner’s worldview or primary belief system, and cognitions” (Pirelli, 2020, p. 2). Again, self-care can help combat these kinds of issues.
Describe the impact of low pay, inadequate materials, and unsupportive leadership that mistreat human service professionals.
Low pay has been an issue within the human services profession for a long time. The low end of pay starts at about 50,000 whereas the high end may cap at over 100k. Wage gaps in human services can affect turnaround rates as well as retention. Employees will most likely go to a job that pays them more. Inadequate materials just make it harder for employees to do their jobs. Doctors need surgical equipment to save lives so materials can mean life or death in some cases. Even with all of this, many human services professionals are mistreated by leadership for not adequately doing their job. You can’t punish someone for not doing a job that they are not equipped to do.
Evaluate three ways that a toxic workplace culture makes it difficult to hire new employees.
Word of mouth is the first way a toxic workplace culture makes it difficult to hire new employees. People talk and they will talk about how toxic their last job was to someone who they know is applying there. They will talk about how horrible the management is and encourage the person to look elsewhere for employment.
Critique innovative solutions that help address the challenge of limited resources available to human service administrators for staffing and service delivery.
Automation or AI comes to mind when I think about innovative solutions for limited human services admin resources. Automation allows tasks to be carried out without the need of a person being there. Some people feel that this is a bad innovation because this tech may take jobs away. I feel that organizations will always need to have human elements making decisions. Automation can ultimately give humans a break from daily tasks and provide services in rural areas that do not have the human capacity. Artificial intelligence is software that can be put into machines. These machines carry out tasks that a human would usually undertake. Like automation, AI can be used in areas that have limited resources and can provide human services admin to those rural areas.
References
Boggs, T. L. (2024). Identifying and Addressing Compassion Fatigue to Improve Well-
Being. Radiologic Technology, 95(3), 199–204.
Pirelli, G., Formon, D. L., & Maloney, K. (2020). Preventing vicarious trauma (VT), compassion fatigue (CF), and burnout (BO) in forensic mental health: Forensic psychology as exemplary. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 51(5), 454–466. https://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000293
Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts. Each of your
responses to your classmates should be at least 150 words in length,
and include an APA formatted scholarly resource. In your response
post, please provide a thoughtful reply to promote discussion,
critical thinking, and class interaction, and provide an open-ended
question for each of your colleagues.
DISCUSSION 2 (Ingrid)
Discuss how human service administrators can empower their staff to combat compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma.
Human service administrators can empower their staff by explaining to them that expressing compassion has a sustaining and renewing effect. When we are compassionate to others, the person we show compassion is more likely to show compassion to the next person that they meet (Compassion Research Lab, 2022). Compassion is infectious. I’ve noticed this in everyday life how powerful compassion can be. I was an Emergency Room intake technician and I had to see many angry, sick patients on an average day. Once I spoke in a calm tone of voice and answered their questions, their whole demeanor changed. Also, working in retail and
assisting customers, especially the elderly, was a chore. Taking the time to ask about someone’s day, or something simple as opening a door, can brighten a person’s day. It doesn’t cost a thing to be kind. You never know what a person is going through.
Describe the impact of low pay, inadequate materials, and unsupportive leadership that mistreat human service professionals
Low pay, inadequate materials, and unsupportive leadership is causing human service professionals to resign. According to Carol (2022), staffing shortages place a growing burden on the professionals who remain and compromise the quality of programming and services at a time of acute need. Teachers are leaving in droves because they don’t have the support of the education system, and the pay isn’t a livable wage. I have a niece that is a middle school teacher. May will be her last time teaching because she doesn’t have the support of the parents and her classroom size is too large for her to help students that are falling behind. She loves what she does, but it’s too much pressure and too much stress especially when you’re underpaid.
Evaluate three ways that a toxic workplace culture makes it difficult to hire new employees
New employees do not want to work when they hear of abysmal pay, inadequate materials, or unsupportive leadership (Carol, J., 2022). My personnel manager once told me when a new hire sees how much the pay rate is during an interview, they no longer want the position. They would get up and leave. I’ve known workers to quit because there wasn’t enough computer equipment to share, and the person could not do their job properly or on time. I’ve also known new hires to quit on the first day because they listen to other employees on how much the workload is in a certain department. New hires don’t want to work with difficult managers, especially if the manager has a reputation of being mean.
Critique innovative solutions which help address the challenge of limited resources available to human service administrators for staffing and service delivery
Human service administrators’ mental health is not being prioritized, which is one of the reasons why soo many workers are resigning. There are staffing shortages that can jeopardize the fate of future services, and it’s also creating burnout for those that are left to suffer. What is scary is the fact that more human service administrators’ resignations are likely. Without proper support, there doesn’t seem to be much anyone can do to create a better workforce for those that remain.
References Caroll, J. (2022, August 19). A “dangerous paradox” in human services. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-answers-within/202208/a- dangerous-paradox-in-human-services.
Compassion Research Lab. (2022, March 24). Compassion fatigue: Is compassion a finite resource?. [Video]. YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ml56Si9_Fg
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-answers-within/202208/a-dangerous-paradox-in-human-services.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-answers-within/202208/a-dangerous-paradox-in-human-services.
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