The Trauma & Emotional Stress Associated with Caregiving: The Importance of Fostering Resiliency

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<div&gt;There is a cost to caring for others and being empathetic. That is why&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;Chapter Eight of this book specifically explores the trauma and emotional stress&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;associated with being a caregiver and the importance of fostering resiliency. The&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;following trauma related conditions, their causes and symptoms are reviewed: posttraumatic&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;stress disorder (PTSD), secondary traumatic stress (STS) and vicarious&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;traumatization. Compassion fatigue and burnout are two additional conditions that are&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;not linked to trauma but are associated with either exposure to human suffering or&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;work-related stress and result in emotional exhaustion. Specific ways to treat the&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;various forms of caregiver trauma and emotional stress are included in the discussion.</div&gt;<div&gt;Facilitating caregiver resiliency is determined to be important in preventing&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;compassion fatigue, and the following strategies are highly recommended: self-care,</div&gt;<div&gt;cultivating exquisite empathy, fostering compassion satisfaction, and embracing&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;strategies that promote joy in work. Note that although they are somewhat different,</div&gt;<div&gt;many of these methods do overlap in some ways. In the Case in Point, an emergency&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;room nurse shared her story of how she developed compassion fatigue after being&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;confronted with ongoing suffering. In closing, caregivers are encouraged to develop a&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;personal wellness plan. In an exercise at the end of the Chapter, caregivers are&lt;/div&gt;<div&gt;encouraged to develop a personal wellness plan.</div&gt;