Title

Compassion Fatigue: Considerations For Working With The Elderly

Keywords

Burnout; Compassion fatigue; Elderly and burnout; Secondary traumatic stress disorder; Social work burnout

Abstract

Compassion fatigue is characterized by physical and psychological exhaustion resulting from excessive professional demands that drain available personal resources. While all helping professionals are vulnerable to compassion fatigue, the authors believe that social workers working with the elderly have unique stresses that make them a high-risk group for compassion fatigue. Increased frustration over limited financial, social and medical services for the elderly, exposure to the developmental challenges inherent during the older years and the worker's countertransferential issues are discussed as contributors to compassion fatigue. Other factors that reinforce this type of burnout for professionals working with this population and recommendations for avoiding or decreasing compassion fatigue are presented. © 1999 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Publication Date

9-20-1999

Publication Title

Journal of Gerontological Social Work

Volume

32

Issue

1

Number of Pages

43-62

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1300/J083v32n01_04

Socpus ID

33645529684 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/33645529684

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