Welcome to the Resource Center for Compassion Fatigue. We hope this website is helpful to you as a Child Life Specialist.
Purpose of Site
The goal of this site is to provide resources that address what Compassion Fatigue is, how it can be recognized, and ways to reduce its impact.
What is Compassion Fatigue?
It is now used to refer to the cognitive-emotional-behavioral changes that can occur from wanting to help, helping or not being able to help those who have experienced some type of trauma (Huggard, 2008; National Child Resource Center for Adoption 2010). The helper’s sense of optimism and value in their work is diminished (Craig and Sprang, 2010). There is a deep sense of exhaustion and a difficulty in experiencing empathy for others (Craig and Sprang, 2010; Mathieu, 2007a).
On the other hand, compassion satisfaction is the positive feelings that are felt as a result of helping others in a professional capacity. It is correlated with lower levels of compassion fatigue (Harr, 2013).
See Compassion Fatigue and Compassion Satisfactions tabs for a more in depth explanation.
Calling All Child Life Specialists!
Members of the Child Life Council reported:
Compassion Fatigue is..
Who We Are:
We are two Child Life graduate students at Illinois State University. We designed this website as part of a class project for a bereavement, grief, and loss class. After recognizing the impact that secondary loss can have on helping professionals, we saw the need for resources addressing Compassion Fatigue for those professionals.