Abbreviation of article written by Edward J. Defort, editor of NFDA Publications, USA
Article is based on Linda Cheldelin Fell NFDA Convention presentation on compassion fatigue

Compassion fatigue is a term traced back to 1907 when first used by psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Carl Jung to describe the concept of the “wounded healer.”

Linda Cheldelin Fell, a retired firefighter/EMT certified in critical-incident stress management, specializes in trauma, grief and compassion fatigue. She is a founding partner of the International Grief Institute, which is dedicated to building community resilience through programs and training available exclusively for the funeral industry.

Compassion is something everyone is born with. “In the funeral industry, there is an abundance of compassion within each of you,” said Cheldelin Fell. “We all want to fix what appears broken. We all empathize when people are going through rough times.” Compassion fatigue happens when people in the cre-giving industry, who are affected day-in and day-out through the course of their career hearing traumatic stories.

Without protecting one’s self from compassion fatigue, that vicarious trauma energy sticks to you and over time begins to wear you down. It’s also known as vicarious trauma. “It’s a cumulative effect of working with people in crisis without taking care of yourself first,” Cheldelin Fell said. “When we hear stories over and over again, we are absorbing someone else’s trauma, and if we’re not careful, it can stick to us like Velcro, and we take it home with us.”

For funeral directors, this is the job. “You have a sacred job tending to families in their darkest hours, but times have changed,” she said. “We've got more violent deaths, stigmatized deaths, that would be suicide, homicide., cold cases, death by overdose and mass casualty incidences. “More and more of you are finding yourselves in a position to tend to those victims because they have to go somewhere and they happen in every town,” she added. Some of these traumatizing cases are gruesome and can cause sensory overload. Long hours and unpredictable breaks may also trigger compassion fatigue.

One of the biggest contributors to compassion fatigue – a poor work/life balance. This is especially true for newer applicants entering the profession. [...] Because of those long hours, you never know when you’re going to get home, you don’t know how many calls are going to come in the middle of the night. Sure, it’s what you signed up for when you entered the profession, but the work-life balance is going to make the difference between being able to enjoy your calling or burning out.

Anyone in the caregiving profession is at risk, including firefighters, service workers and healthcare workers. But no one has been hit harder by the events of the past couple of years than funeral service workers.
Cheldelin Fell pointed out that a 2017 study showed that 87% of emergency responders reported symptoms of compassion and fatigue. Furthermore, 70% of mental health workers reported symptoms of compassion fatigue. The same was reported to be true among 50% of child welfare workers. No one has studied compassion fatigue among funeral directors.

How does compassion fatigue affect the funeral home?

Read the article in the autumn issue of THANOS magazine - you can read online at pages 10-13