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Understanding the "costs of caring"

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​Compassion fatigue (CF)
  • a profound emotional and physical exhaustion
  • develops in helping professionals 
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Vicarious trauma (VT)
  • a shift in a helper's world view as a result of hearing clients' trauma stories
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Operational Stress Injury (OSI)
  • a non-clinical, non-medical term referring to a persistent psychological difficulty
  • caused by traumatic experiences or prolonged high stress or fatigue during service as a military member or first responder.
Burnout
  • a term widely used that describes physical and emotional exhaustion due to poor work satisfaction and feeling powerless and overwhelmed at work
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References
     CMHA Ontario (2019). Operational Stress Injury. Retrieved
     from: https://ontario.cmha.ca/provincial-policy/criminal-justice/
     operational-stress-injury/
 
     Matieu, F. (2012). The compassion fatigue workbook. New York, NY: Routledge. 
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