As a caregiver, you spend your time caring for others. Like most caregivers, your work probably does not stop when your shift is over. And many times caregivers experience distress and grief in response to the suffering they see.  These emotions can compromise personal well-being, since unexamined emotions may lead to burnout, empathic distress, compassion fatigue, and poor decisions which adversely affect client care. One approach to mitigate this harm is self-care, defined as activities performed independently by an individual to promote and maintain personal well-being throughout life. Learn about why self-care is important and what you can do to combat the stress.

SC 001 Building Balance: Combating Empathic Distress in Animal Welfare 

Compassion stress or empathic distress is a normal and natural response to working in a caring field -- and the field of animal care and protection is no exception. Awareness of suffering, our desire to take action to alleviate it, and the weariness that results from the volume of work and depth of caring, all lead to exhaustion and burn out if not carefully managed. This self-paced course will allow you to explore the signs and symptoms of compassion stress, fatigue, and burnout, and provide a variety of tools and strategies you can use to sustain involvement in a rewarding and equally challenging field. Participants will leave with strategies and tools to make the journey easier and sustainable. Participants will also become part of a private online group to allow for continued communication and sharing opportunities.

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