A pilot study on compassion fatigue and hazards among practitioners in public child welfare and juvenile justice systems in Chile and the United States
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7764/rts.95.79-90Keywords:
Compassion fatigue, burnout, hazard, social workers, child services, child welfareAbstract
The pilot study measures compassion fatigue experienced by social workers in the United States and Chile who work in public child welfare and juvenile justice systems. While public child welfare systems differ in legislative and organizational structures in these two countries, the study uncovers what types of compassion fatigue participants experienced and what they saw as supports and organizational practices that increase or decrease levels of compassion fatigue. Qualtrics survey tools were used to deliver an online survey to potential participants in both countries with two instruments: the Professional Quality of Life Scale V version and the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale. The survey also asked open-ended questions for participants to identify supports received from their work sites that address compassion fatigue and challenges in their work environments. Workers in both countries have similar challenges and needs related to addressing compassion fatigue and hazards. The overall compassion fatigue reported by participants in both countries was relatively high and not directly linked to the perceived level of organizational supports in their work settings. One area of difference is that participants in the U.S. experienced significantly more compassion satisfaction than did the participants from Chile. There also was a significant difference in the responses from participants in Chile related to experiencing more secondary traumatic stress than U.S. participants. This study is the first step in working to determine best practices when addressing compassion fatigue and the hazards of working in high demand public child-serving systems. Further research is necessary to further study compassion fatigue among social workers in child welfare systems in both countries.
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