The CAREgivers film team wants to acknowledge how secondary trauma seems to be cropping up frequently within the current social climate, including much anxiety about health care, budget cuts, racism, and environmental degradation. In particular frontline professionals, activists, and advocates who are responding with care for people who will be effected by the threat of rapid changes in the social safety net need our support and encouragement.
Here are several examples of social activists or care providers who are experiencing vicarious trauma as they care for our suffering environment and for traumatized persons. There are many more...
- Climate Change - "John McIlwain, director of the Garrison Institute’s Climate, Mind and Behavior Program describes the effects on natural scientists of ecological loss as “secondary trauma,” saying, 'It takes a rare and brave human being to continue to do what needs to be done in the face of hopelessness.' " Scientific American - July 21, 2016 Facing Down "Environmental Grief" Is a traumatic sense of loss freezing action against climate change?
- Politics & Current Events within therapy sessions - "Therapists throughout the region confirmed that, for the first time in their careers, clients are so upset about politics that they're willing to pay to talk about it. Patients are not coming in specifically because of the election, but are talking about it as an added source of distress. Some physicians also report that patients are having physical symptoms of anxiety such as chest tightness and gastrointestinal distress." Philadelphia Inquirer - February 26, 2017- Trending topic in therapy sessions: Trump anxiety
- Homelessness - "Beleaguered social service providers operate in constant crisis mode. Notoriously underpaid staff working in arduous conditions struggle with post-traumatic stress from the “secondary trauma” of reckoning with the suffering all around them."Crosscut.com - September 20, 2016 - Seattle’s 30-year fight to end homelessnessWe’ve led the country in the search for solutions, so why is the problem just getting worse?
- Immigration - "For the law students, it’s new … trying to put together an asylum application where you have to document persecution. We hope to train all of the team how to interview people about the most horrifying events of their lives." — Megan Berthold UCONN Today - March 8, 2017 - UConn Group to Spend Spring Break Assisting Asylum Applicants - UConn Today
With so many vulnerable caregiving professionals and activists working on and reacting to stressful issues, the CAREgivers film team wants to identify regional umbrella agencies and community foundations that will protect frontline workers from secondary trauma and compassion fatigue whenever possible. Stepping up to screen CAREgivers film, to host post-screening discussions and workshops, and to advocate for trauma-informed workplaces, are some important ways of supporting citizen advocates and care providers in these turbulent times .
Please contact us if you want to work with us to identify screening sponsors and groups who would benefit from CAREgivers film.
All the best,
Lauren and Vic
Lauren Townsend
Outreach Coordinator
Vic Compher
Director, Co-Producer, Trainer
www.facebook.com/caregiversfilm
215-939-7621 - ltownsend4@gmail.com
267-266-0842 - viccompher@comcast.net
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