Episode 4: Resolving Compassion Fatigue with Philip Chard

OT Ep. 4 Transcription.txt
00;00;09;00 – 00;01;06;24
Kelly Parbs
Welcome to OnTopic with Empathia. I’m your host, Kelly Parbs. I’m a licensed clinical social worker with over 35 years working at Empathia supporting individuals and organizations across the globe. Today on the show, we’re following up from last week’s episode with Philip Chard to talk about understanding and identifying compassion fatigue and its impacts. Phil is a practicing psychotherapist with over 35 years experience in the field. In addition to having retired as CEO and President of Empathia, he has written an award-winning weekly column titled ‘Out of My Mind.’ As part of Phil’s experience in Mental Health, he has a great deal of knowledge on addressing compassion fatigue. You can find part one of this conversation on our website, Empathia.com. Hello Phil! Thanks for sitting down with us again!

00;01;07;05 – 00;01;09;09
Philip Chard
Thanks, Kelly. I’ll do my best today.

00;01;09;22 – 00;01;56;24
Kelly Parbs
Compassion satisfaction; I- I really appreciate you explaining that to me and to our listeners. And that’s something I can very much relate to. People say to me all the time, Kelly, You know, why do you like your job? I go to airplane crashes, right? I go to school shootings. I deal with death and grieving and sadness all of the time. But my philosophy is I feel so blessed and so lucky that I can bring some compassion to these very difficult situations. And although I, of course, wish they didn’t happen. I feel privileged to be able to walk alongside people who are going through these things. So that’s definitely where my compassion satisfaction comes from.

00;01;57;02 – 00;03;13;18
Philip Chard
Yeah, And you know, it’s interesting because you also have then a philosophy about it that helps you to put things into perspective and to be able to see this as part of your purpose in life. And we know that a sense of purpose is one of the things that can safeguard us from some of the risks associated with compassion fatigue. I’ve had similar kinds of experiences. I recall working with an individual who had a tremendous and very intense history of emotional trauma. And I remember during the times that I spent with this individual that I would be at the end of our interactions, I felt exhausted, really just completely drained at all levels. I felt that sense of fatigue. But I also had that sense also of satisfaction, a feeling that I had in whatever way I could helped to ease a little bit of that suffering. So it’s almost like a balancing act. It’s how much fatigue versus how much satisfaction and when that scale starts to tip in the direction of more fatigue than satisfaction. That’s when we believe people start going down that slippery slope towards compassion fatigue.

00;03;13;22 – 00;03;56;02
Kelly Parbs
And that just highlights the importance of this discussion, right? Those of us who are in situations that might make us vulnerable to compassion fatigue. We do need to stop and take inventory of how are we doing and how can we take care of ourselves. We know, right, that we can’t pour from an empty cup, so some of what we’re going to be talking about is how to fill that cup and how to make sure that we are okay so we can continue to do the work that we do. I’m sure many of our listeners here are not in, quote, “helping professions.” How can individuals who are not in helping professions is also experience compassion fatigue?

00;03;56;07 – 00;04;22;05
Philip Chard
Well, they definitely can and do. One example might be someone who works, and this is one that people don’t often associate with compassion fatigue, but somebody who’s working on a social justice issue, like maybe child poverty and hunger or homelessness, for example. And when such persons, you know, they’re not directly exposed to the children or the homeless people who are in distress, but they still deeply feel the collective weight of this suffering.

00;04;22;22 – 00;06;23;08
Philip Chard
And at the same time, they feel some despair over their inability kind of to make a bigger difference in the lives of these people. It’s like the problem is so big. Again, it’s sort of like chipping away at it. Or I’m the little Dutch boy with my, you know, thumb in the dike trying to hold back the torrent. And those people, even though they’re not directly exposed to the suffering, sometimes they’re aware of it. It’s in their consciousness. It’s part of what they’re feel they need to do something about. And when they feel like we’re really, you know, we’re just trying to bail out the ocean with a bucket, that’s when compassion fatigue can set in for them. Another large group in this regard is family caregivers, often unpaid and underappreciated souls, you know, who may take it upon themselves to care for a loved one who’s declining or suffering or are otherwise in distress. And unlike many helping professionals, they may not have any meaningful respite from this, you know, often thankless work that goes on and on. They live it all day, every day, and they can definitely experience compassion fatigue. And then there are just individuals who are highly empathic people, meaning they’re kind of like emotional sponges. You know, they absorb the emotionality of people around them. And even, you know, if they’re around family or friends or coworkers who are experiencing some really tough times and they are exposed to that enough, even those folks can experience some kind of compassion fatigue. I had one of those individuals say to me once, No more sad stories. No more sad stories. And it’s kind of a way of saying, I just I can’t take any more negativity. I can’t take any more suffering into myself. It can really affect anyone who finds themselves in those situations, provided, of course, that they have that capacity for empathy, which most people do.

00;06;23;17 – 00;07;05;29
Kelly Parbs
You’re reminding me, Phil, when we’re talking about organizations and people in helping professions, those people more than likely have coworkers or teams that they work on where they have that unique kind of a unique support system of other people who are experiencing what they’re going through. But when we’re thinking about those people who are at home in the trenches, maybe day in and day out caring for children or caring for their parents or caring for their grandparents, they may not be surrounded by that natural support system of other people who know what they’re going through, and I would imagine that that would create specific challenges for them as well.

00;07;06;05 – 00;07;41;04
Philip Chard
Definitely. You can’t say enough about how helpful it is to have people around you, coworkers, or if you have extended family helping you with a caregiving role. You can’t overstate, I think, how important that is to an individual to have somebody who gets it, somebody who really understands their reality that starts to decrease their sense of loneliness and isolation and ‘it’s all on me’ kind of thinking. And that in itself can ease some of the distress that comes with compassion fatigue.

00;07;41;09 – 00;07;49;14
Kelly Parbs
I’m wondering Phil- can compassion fatigue be resolved completely, or is it really something that must be managed over the long term?

00;07;49;27 – 00;09;29;10
Philip Chard
I believe it can be resolved, but not if you include the word completely like the emotional wounds, you know, that are inflicted by compassion fatigue will always be a part of someone’s psyche or their life narrative, if you will. You know, you can’t unexperience what you’ve experienced. There’s no spotless mind kind of approach that’s going to make it all disappear. However, compassion fatigue can be managed, which involves focusing on, first of all, kind of relieving some of the symptoms that go with it, which usually is done through optimizing self-care, but also embracing emotional- what we call emotional self-regulation, which there are certain techniques that we tend to teach people that help them do that. And then also arriving at a kind of a philosophical or spiritual understanding that lessens the suffering and despair that they’re feeling. So in some sense, we need to sculpt the kind of relationship, if you will, with our compassion fatigue. It’s one in which we evolve from feeling like a victim to experiencing ourselves more as what we call an agent, meaning as someone who has the capacity to manage the emotional reactions and the wounding that accompany this condition. So what we’re talking about here is management is really about empowering oneself to feel like I’m more in charge of me, my own, my mindset, my emotions, my attitude, as opposed to being controlled by what’s going on around me, which in this case is suffering in others.

00;09;29;23 – 00;09;47;22
Kelly Parbs
One of the things I talk with clients about all the time is let’s really focus on what I can control here. What can you control and what is outside of your control helps us to just feel like we can manage the situation a little bit better when we focus on what we can have some control over.

00;09;47;29 – 00;10;55;29
Philip Chard
It’s an excellent point, Kelly, and to go back to one of the risk factors with this is perfectionism. When you have people who are perfectionistic, they’re often trying to control things that are really outside of their span of control or even influence. And that’s a ticket, obviously, for frustration and a sense of failure and a piling on, if you will, of this what’s-the-use kind of feeling. So it is important to kind of stay within the bounds, if you will, of what you can control or influence and not, as they often say, get way out over your skis and trying to, you know, do something that’s really beyond your capacity. So people who have a perfectionistic bent and I would probably classify myself in that category, at least at risk of it, I have to take special care to remember I’m not the master of the world. I can’t control all this stuff. I got to focus on what I can control and sometimes what I can control more than anything else is my own reactions, my own mindset, my own way of coming at what I’m doing.

00;10;56;09 – 00;11;13;13
Kelly Parbs
I think that’s a great advice for all of us, even if we’re not experiencing compassion fatigue. I’m thinking that many of our listeners right now might be saying, Yep, that’s me. I have compassion fatigue. So how can people effectively manage compassion fatigue if it does occur?

00;11;13;26 – 00;15;19;01
Philip Chard
There are a lot of different approaches. You don’t obviously have to do them all. They all have some evidence to support their efficacy. So these aren’t things we just pulled out of thin air. They actually work for many people, most people most of the time, but they’re not panaceas. And when people try different approaches, it’s important for them to pay attention to, ah, did this really help and did it give me some sense of greater well-being? If so, then by all means, pursue it. If not, then, you know, move on to a different approach. But one of the key things that we see helps people manage compassion fatigue is to try to reconnect with their sense of purpose. You know what? What am I here to do? What is my life and my work meaning? And that’s one of the things that can be damaged by compassion fatigue. So reconnecting with that and sort of reinvigorating that sense of purpose is important. A philosopher named Nietzsche, who wasn’t known for being particularly positive, he was an existentialist, but he said that those who have a lie to live for meaning, a purpose to live for can endure almost any how, meaning any set of circumstances. So that sense of why when we connect with it consciously, intentionally helps us to push back against some of that despair and cynicism that accompany compassion fatigue. It’s also important, and this sounds kind of counter almost paradoxical, actually, that people with compassion, fatigue practice gratitude. I know that sounds a weird. Wait a minute. What am I should be grateful for here? You know, I’m suffering. The people I’m working with are suffering. What’s there to be grateful for? But we know one of the things that happens when we have compassion fatigue is we develop something that’s called a negative cognitive bias. It means that the brain, without realizing it, starts to sort for the negatives around us, It starts to screen out the positives and just focus on the negatives. So there’s a bias towards negativity and that really is corrosive to our well-being. And it’s a central feature to compassion fatigue. So when people practice gratitude, they actually begin to alter that negative cognitive bias to a more positive one, where they start to see the good around them and not just the negative around them. And, you know, an easy way to practice gratitude doesn’t take much time, but it has big effects that are durable. An easy way to do it is just get yourself a small bound journal, maybe keep it by the bedside when you wake up in the morning. Just take a moment to jot down one thing from your life in general that you’re grateful for. Could be something from way in the past, even your childhood. It doesn’t have to be anything that happened recently, but just something I’m glad this person or this experience or whatever has been a part of my life. And then that same evening, before you go to bed, you make another entry in the journal about something that happened during that day that you feel blessed by. And so you kind of have these bookends, your life in general, in your life immediate, and you have fine gratitude in both of those places, if you will. If you do that, you don’t have to do it every day, by the way. You do it every other day, every third day, even if you do that over a period of several weeks. We have research evidence showing that that cognitive bias starts switching from negative to positive. And interestingly enough, the effects of this are very durable. In one study, they actually had people do gratitude. Journaling for six weeks, measured the impact, which was very powerful in a positive way. Then they had them stop doing it for six weeks and measured the impact again. And they found that the impact had actually mostly sustained even in the absence of the approach itself. So it’s a very durable, very powerful a way to go at it.

00;15;19;12 – 00;15;53;06
Kelly Parbs
Phil, I appreciate that so much. And I just want to say that that’s probably one of my favorite coping strategies is to look at what is going well, find what’s good. Even in a difficult situation. I am convinced that gratitude truly is the seed to joy. I practice and I try to teach people that I work with and I don’t know the research the way you know, the research or the science. But I can tell you from a personal standpoint that absolutely works in my life.

00;15;53;16 – 00;17;50;04
Philip Chard
And you’re right on to it because there is good, solid research to back up what you’re experiencing. Some people are able to do gratitude work just by thinking about it. For other people, it’s more important to write it down because when we write things down, it makes them more real to us, more concrete. And that’s why the journaling aspect is often helpful. But it’s not necessary for everyone. Some people don’t need to do it that way. Another approach that we often encourage people to use, of course, is mindfulness. You hear this is a buzzword lately. Mindfulness, but being connected to the present moment, even when that moment involves suffering, you’re dealing with somebody who’s in pain or some other kind of suffering. Being engaged with the moment somehow makes it easier for us to navigate through those difficult times, those difficult experiences. What we tend to do sometimes when we have compassion fatigue because we’re disconnecting from what’s going on around us is that we start thinking more about the past or ruminating and worrying more about the future. And when we’re mindful, when we’re engaged with the present moment, we really are and have the ability to deal with these emotions in a more effective kind of way, they aren’t as debilitating to us. So being here now as we love to say is another method that promotes mindfulness, because when you’re not present with somebody, because you’re protecting yourself, is it? Or from the emotional contagion or residue, as we call it, that can come in to you when you don’t have that kind of engagement? You’re basically not present with the individual that feeds into that sense of moral injury. I’m not really here. I’m not really doing the good work I’m supposed to be doing. And then that can contribute to more compassion fatigue as well.

00;17;50;18 – 00;19;09;01
Kelly Parbs
Phil, I want to reflect for a moment on what you said about reconnecting with your purpose. The reason you chose your profession. I worked maybe a year ago with a clinic of veterinarians. You mentioned that they’re certainly at risk for compassion fatigue, and tragically, two of their colleagues died by suicide. This forced this group to really look at their own coping skills. And one of the veterinarians in particular was very strongly considering leaving his career because of a very serious case of compassion fatigue. He did go to counseling, and while in counseling, he learned some of the very techniques that you are mentioning. One of them being really taking a look at reconnecting with the reason he became a veterinarian in the first place. And that mattered to him. And it made a big difference. And I’m glad to say he decided to continue in his career and he implemented strategies that made him a little bit stronger and able to kind of manage the symptoms of compassion fatigue that he was experiencing. So I like to highlight the good news and there is good news that these strategies really do work.

00;19;09;14 – 00;21;55;09
Philip Chard
Yeah, there is. And people who have sort of these repeated experiences that can invoke compassion fatigue or they’re seeing a series of individuals, maybe their patients or a series of animals, if they’re in a veterinary world, one right after the other, and each one of them has sort of their own version of suffering or their own sad story, as it were, it becomes increasingly important when you’re in that sort of one after another, after another kind of environment that you offload some of the emotional residue that you take from one interaction and not drag it into the next one. And to help people with that, we often teach them a method called coherent breathing. It’s a one minute breath work exercise. The listeners, if you want to learn more about it, you can Google it. Again, it’s coherent breathing. This breathing is kind of like a reset for the brain. It’s almost, you know, we build up this emotional cache or residue in the brain after we’ve had a series of these painful or distressful interactions. And if we don’t deliberately, unintentionally offload that can then it begins to weigh us down and become a burden that we’re dragging around this emotionality with us and taking it home with us and all of that. Coherent breathing that is sort of a way to reset the brain’s emotional cache, kind of clears it out. You can do it in one minute. So in between visits with patients or even if you’re in a family situation, in between interactions with that family member who’s coherent breathing to reset your brain, as it were, so that you’re not accumulating this burden of negative emotionality throughout the day. Another method that we see that’s really helpful for people is nature immersion. You talked about joy a little while ago, Kelly, and we know that when people immerse their senses in the natural world, most of the time, they begin to experience some elements of what we call awe and wonder, you know, this sense of the beauty of nature, the order and balance of it, how it seems to kind of work sometimes when our human experiences aren’t working. Nature is a kind of a reassuring go to home kind of place for us. And there’s lots of research showing that even brief exposures to the natural world can have this palliative effect on our mood lowers stress hormones in the body and elevates feel good chemicals in the brain. So nature immersion is a real method to consider using.

00;21;55;10 – 00;22;40;08
Kelly Parbs
Phil, a while back I attended a training that you did. The training was for counselors on the topic of self-care. We counselors are pretty good at talking about self-care strategies with our clients, but we’re not always so great about stopping and thinking about caring for ourselves. We talked about some of these things that you’re mentioning right now. What I especially loved is that that training that you provided some really practical evidence based strategies that people can use for preventing compassion fatigue, and I’ll tell you, I definitely have a favorite addition to gratitude that I use regularly. But before I share that with you, please do tell us more of these evidence based strategies for preventing compassion fatigue.

00;22;40;15 – 00;26;05;27
Philip Chard
Sure, there’s a few more here. I mean, one of the surprising ones, interestingly enough, is learning new things. This one really surprised me when I saw it in the research literature. But the number one activity that builds emotional and mental resilience in people is learning new things. So, you know, you know, reading a book on a subject you’ve never explored before, trying your hand at a second language, picking up a musical instrument, going to some kind of, you know, class auditing a class, whatever, any kind of learning kind of helps to restore some of the well-being to our mental functioning and our emotional resilience that compassion fatigue undermines. And I go, I got to tell you, when I saw that research, I dove into it pretty deeply because I didn’t quite believe that that could have that powerful effect. But it does. So that’s a strategy to consider as well. And it also, of course, takes you out of the realm of I’m feeling helpless. I don’t feel like I’m making a difference and put you into a realm where you feel some agency and personal power. I can do this. Look at that. I learn something new, I can adapt, I can change. That’s the the impact it has on our thinking. Another area that we see, interestingly enough, is just distractions, which often get a bad name. But distractions are important because we do need those little sanctuaries, those interludes of time when we’re not focused on our distress or the distress of others, and we’re just doing something kind of where the mind gets to check out and just do something kind of fun or or enjoyable. So even simple things like, you know, board games or listening to music or knitting or working puzzles, all these things actually have been shown through research to lower emotional suffering and even physical pain. So distractions are- you know, they get a bad rap, but they can have a real role to play in combating compassion fatigue. And then one you expect me to say exercise. You know, everybody says, “Oh, you always say exercise,” and the reason we always say it is because it works. A large scale study looked at the impact of exercise on depression and anxiety, which of course are very common symptoms in those with compassion fatigue. And it found a 60% average reduction in symptoms for people who practice regular cardio exercise. So this is a way to address in particular the physical and the emotional impacts from compassion fatigue. And then, as we’ve alluded to before, is to invest in your spiritual life, whatever that means to you, whether it’s your faith community or your way of being philosophical, or maybe if you’re a meditator, prayer. Whatever the case is for you personally, investing in spiritual life helps to create that larger perspective where the tunnel vision of suffering that is imposed by compassion fatigue begins to spread out and we begin to see it in a broader context that helps us to understand and kind of live with it in a better way.

00;26;06;09 – 00;26;22;28
Kelly Parbs
Phil, I have to say, all of the things that you mentioned are things that I really do try to employ and that work for me. There’s one you didn’t mention, though, that I learned from your training and that I love, and that works for me and that is singing out loud.

00;26;23;08 – 00;26;24;01
Philip Chard
Oh yeah!

00;26;25;12 – 00;26;46;02
Kelly Parbs
Even if it feels kind of silly when you do it in the car, maybe on the way to a difficult job or. Or after an emotional job. Not only do I listen to music because I’ve always known that that just feels good to me. But what I learned from your training is don’t just listen. Sing along.

00;26;46;05 – 00;27;54;29
Philip Chard
Yeah, that’s an interesting one. Thanks for bringing that up. You’re talking about different techniques actually, that activate the vagus nerve, which is that big nerve that runs from the brain down into other parts of the body. And that has a real role to play in the so called fight flight freeze response that we have when we’re stressed or feel ourselves in danger. Singing helps to do that. It helps to activate that vagal response and to relax us. Some other things do that too. Interestingly enough, a cold shower, if you can handle it, or even just splashing cold water on your face is another thing, like singing out loud that tends to activate that relaxation response in the body. So yeah, sometimes there are just these little things. And you know, as a quick example, let’s say someone’s at work and you know, they are struggling with compassion fatigue and they have another, you know, really tough day on the way home in the car, crank up some music, sing along that’s going to help you a little bit to relax and offload some of that emotional residue.

00;27;55;09 – 00;28;44;06
Kelly Parbs
Well, I can tell you it works for me. So I hope our listeners are writing down some of these tips and trying different things that might help them with their symptoms of compassion fatigue. Phil, we’ve talked a lot about individuals and compassion fatigue, but I’d like to talk also about organizations. I work for Empathia, you can hear it in our name: Empathy. We support organizations in caring for the well-being of their employees. And I know from working with individuals and organizations over the years, the happiest employees are the ones whose organizations truly have their wellbeing in mind. So how can organizations support their employees in both preventing and managing compassion fatigue?

00;28;44;15 – 00;32;21;01
Philip Chard
This applies primarily to organizations as opposed to folks who are, say, family caregivers. But the first important thing is to talk openly about it. There are some organizations where it’s sort of like a dirty little secret. Nobody wants to talk about it. Everyone needs to be aware of it as a potential issue of potential risk and what to look for that would suggest that there’s a problem. And then, of course, how to address it. And this should come from the top. For example, in a health care organization, you know, preventing and addressing compassion fatigue are critical to things like patient care, safety, workplace culture. It’s a mission critical thing and it should be treated as such. So the first thing is, let’s not pretend it’s not happening. Let’s talk about it. Let’s educate ourselves about it so that it isn’t something anybody has to feel, you know, guilty or bad about themselves if they happen to begin to experience it. You know, and as we talked about before, Kelly, sometimes part of the problems in the operations, how the organization conducts its work, this can create a kind of baseline of stress that then elevates the risks for people to acquire a compassion fatigue. Sometimes I’ve seen organizations where they’ll actually empower a team of front line employees, front line supervisors to look at the workplace process design they’re using and how that might be creating more compassion fatigue for people and therefore come up with ideas about how to ease the overall stress level in the organization. You know, we hear about stress all the time, but think of stress as kind of a risk factor for developing compassion fatigue. If you’re already stressed out about a lot of things that aren’t related to compassion fatigue, and then you begin having experiences that create it, then that baseline of stress makes it much easier to fall prey to it. You know, some organizations, as you know, have put together on site kind of wellness and well-being programs to help reduce that overall workplace stress. These things have a mixed report card. Many employees appreciate the access to things like, you know, a chair massage or yoga classes or quiet rooms and so on. But the research on this does suggest that the impact of these resources on well-being is a mixed bag. Some people report that they really appreciate it and really helpful to them, others don’t, and many people don’t avail themselves of it. So it’s sort of like these well-being programs are good idea, but it looks more and more like we need to continually try to discover better ways to deliver them to the employee population. And, you know, some organizations that are really deeply in the helping professions like Empathia are exposed to a lot of suffering. And others. You know, some organizations will offer support groups for their employees who work in really intense situations that are known to pose the risk in this regard. And as noted before, you know, sometimes, you know, the only people who can understand what someone with compassion fatigue is going through is someone who has it or has had it in the past. So these support groups give you that more of a institutionally sanctioned way, if you will, to look at the issue, address the issue, and they should be conducted a course by somebody who’s trained and experienced as a facilitator. You don’t just throw a bunch of people in the room and tell them to talk. But these groups have proven pretty helpful in a lot of health care settings.

00;32;21;11 – 00;32;56;12
Kelly Parbs
I’ve noticed at organizations that I’ve worked in where compassion fatigue seems to be kind of contagious among a team or or a group. There might be one or two people who are really struggling with unhappiness, and it seems to kind of rub off on the whole team. But the flip side of that, it also seems like that compassion satisfaction can also be contagious. And if team members talk more about that and build each other up, that’s contagious as well. Is that something that you’ve seen as well?

00;32;57;02 – 00;33;45;01
Philip Chard
Definitely. Emotions are contagious and one of the ways that I’ve heard that described that, I think it’s real apropos is from Virginia Satir who was a pioneer in doing family therapy and family systems work. She talked about the fact that a family or in this case, a work group, imagine that they all take their lunch or their sustenance, if you will, from a common catalyst. Do they keep a catalyst to on the stove going all the time? And you always have to keep putting new ingredients in because people are taking food out of every day. And if just a few people decide that they’re going to put in toxic or spoiled ingredients, the stew goes bad and everybody starts to get a little sick.

00;33;45;01 – 00;33;45;28
Kelly Parbs
Exactly.

00;33;46;00 – 00;35;10;13
Philip Chard
And it’s kind of like that with emotions when people are putting a lot of negative emotions into the workplace collective stew, if you will. Everybody is going to start to feel that and be affected by it. And so, of course, the antidote to that is not to impose what we call toxic positivity, which is, oh, don’t worry about a thing, you know, speak no evil, everything’s fine. But positivity that’s grounded in realism is a good ingredient to put into that workplace stew because everybody’s going to draw from that themselves. The other thing I want to add is the last piece on the organizational response is that, you know, I do think it’s vital that organizations offer, you know, a professional and confidential and free resource for their employees who have risk of compassion fatigue. And often that occurs through an employee assistance program like, you know, life matters from Empathia. And many employees who are suffering from compassion fatigue, as we know, are concerned that their distress might jeopardize their employment or their reputation or standing in the organization. This is particularly true in organizations, again, that don’t talk about the condition and don’t make it, you know, a priority to address. They keep it under the rug. So a truly confidential resource that’s, you know, well advertised to employees is essential in addressing compassion fatigue in the workplace.

00;35;10;22 – 00;35;35;11
Kelly Parbs
It’s absolutely been my experience going into organizations that when employees feel like their organization really have their well-being in mind, those employees, although certainly they may go through very difficult situations. They seem to rebound quicker and get through them better when their organization really shows that they care about them.

00;35;35;20 – 00;36;08;07
Philip Chard
Good point. There’s always a question in the mind of almost anyone who works anywhere. It may not be a conscious question, but it’s usually at least floating around in the background. And that question is, does the organization care about me as it care about me? Does it care about my fellow coworkers? And the answer to that question is found in how the organization responds when people are in distress or they are struggling with difficulties. That’s when the organization stands up and answers that question. Yes, we care or no, we don’t.

00;36;08;22 – 00;36;13;04
Kelly Parbs
Phil, I don’t have any other questions for you today. I think we covered it!

00;36;13;04 – 00;36;28;07
Philip Chard
Great! We can see it’s a big topic. It spans a lot of mental space, if you will. But again, it’s a very pressing issue these days, particularly as we continue through the pandemic. And it’s something that I hope the listeners will take to heart.

00;36;28;11 – 00;38;02;27
Kelly Parbs
Phil, thank you for joining us again today. I really appreciate that you can take this wealth of knowledge and research and data and boil it down to share practical, doable tips and strategies that anyone can easily implement. Thank you for that. Next time on OnTopic, we’ll be talking about the mental health struggles young adults can face with Bill Mulcahy. I’m really looking forward to that conversation. Bill is incredibly knowledgeable and I think we will gain great insight. To hear that episode and other episodes of OnTopic with Empathia, visit our website, Empathia.com. Follow us on social media at Empathia and subscribe to OnTopic with Empathia to hear new episodes as soon as they go live. I’m Kelly Parbs – thanks for listening to OnTopic with Empathia.