April 15, 2009 – Compassion fatigue is the cumulative physical, emotional, and psychological effects of continual exposure to traumatic stories or events when working in a helping capacity.  Symptoms include sleep disturbance, anxiety, intrusive thoughts, a sense of futility or pessimism about people, lethargy, isolation, and irritability. It has been studied in social workers, nurses, doctors, and therapists who work with trauma victims.  Recently, researchers have examined the impact upon legal professionals. 

Who is most at risk?

Attorneys who work in the field of criminal or family law are reportedly at higher risk of compassion fatigue.  Judges are not immune either, research shows. These legal professionals listen day after day to stories of human-induced violence, reading and rereading detailed documentation of traumatic material.

Lawyers and judges are taught not to show weakness; to deny, defend, and deflect vulnerability, while staying emotionally detached at all times. The reality is that attorneys and judges are human beings.  Lawyers and judges exposed to traumatic stories and events may have physiological reactions such as increased heart rate, breathing rate, and muscle tension. They may also experience changes in their assumptions about life, other people, and issues of safety.  These reactions are indicative of the physiological and psychological changes occurring within the mind/body due to the processes of empathy or identification, reactions of the autonomic nervous system, and patterns of thinking.  If left unchecked, these reactions wear on the mind and the body, resulting in the above mentioned symptoms.

What places legal professionals at increased risk?

Compared to mental health providers and social service workers, attorneys surveyed had significantly higher levels of secondary traumatic stress and burnout.  Researchers state that this is likely due to higher case loads, lack of supervision or support, and lack of education in regards to the impact of ongoing exposure to traumatic material and events.

Organizational and job issues that contribute to the development of compassion fatigue include:

• high caseloads
• minimal support from supervisors
• lack of peer support
• excessive paperwork
• inadequate resources to meet demands and limited job recognition.

Researchers also report the impact of compassion fatigue upon the work environment includes:

• increased absenteeism
• impaired judgment
• low motivation
• lower productivity
• high staff turnover. 

These factors, coupled with the culture of practicing law, may discourage attorneys or judges from recognizing the signs of distress or prevent them from seeking assistance.  In contrast, social service and mental health workers are educated about the potential impact of the work upon their mental and physical health and are encouraged to talk about it in order to lessen the impact.

What can legal organizations do?

Law organizations need to recognize and acknowledge that compassion fatigue exists and identify how it impacts the practice of law.  Prevention strategies include:

reducing caseloads

• educating legal professionals about what compassion fatigue is and how a person may be impacted while working with traumatic stories and events. 
• encourage staff to debrief their high trauma cases on a regular basis in a supportive atmosphere.  

What can legal professionals do?

Whether an attorney, judge, doctor, or a mental health professional, the recommendations to mitigate or treat compassion fatigue are similar.

• understand what compassion fatigue is, assessing for it on a regular basis 
• talking on a regular basis with another practitioner who understands and is supportive
• establishing a healthy diet, sleep and exercise program
• work on healthy interpersonal relationships
• intentionally seek assistance to help yourself implement change, redirecting thoughts that tell you, “I should be able to do this by myself” to “I don’t have to do it all by myself.”

The good news:  WisLAP can be a resource specifically for you

If you want to consult with a mental health professional or work with a trained attorney or judge, consider calling the Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program (WisLAP), a member service of the State Bar of Wisconsin.  The program uses trained Wisconsin judges and attorneys who provide confidential assistance to judges, lawyers, law students, and their families.  Each request for help is treated with the same confidentiality as the lawyer-client relationship.  WisLAP is exempt from reporting professional misconduct to the Office of Lawyer Regulation or to the Judicial Commission. WisLAP does not ask callers to disclose their identity and does not keep case records.Confidential support is available 24/7 by calling (800) 543-2625.  Or contact Linda Albert, WisLAP coordinator, directly at (800) 444-9404, ext. 6172, or email lalbert@wisbar.org.

More information at the Annual Convention

WisLAP coordinator Linda Albert will give a presentation on compassion fatigue on Thursday, May 7, at 3:40 p.m. during the State Bar Annual Convention in Milwaukee. Also on May 7, other WisLAP speakers scheduled to present starting at 1 p.m.:

• Attorney Kathleen M. Falk, Dane County Executive’s Office, Madison – “Changing Wisconsin’s culture of misuse of alcohol”
• Dr. Michael J. Bohn, Aurora Psychiatric Hospital, Wauwatosa – “Emotions, genetics, and memory: How the brain learns to become addicted and how forgetting is so difficult”
• Attorney Deborah M. Smith, State Public Defenders Office Assigned Counsel Division, Madison – “A duty to help: What judges and lawyers can do”
  
• Read the full article by Linda Albert: Keeping Legal Minds Intact: Mitigating Compassion Fatigue among Legal Professionals