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      • Confronting Stigma
      • Understanding Intersectional Systems of Oppression
      • Real life needs of folks on the drug war front line
      • Staff self-care and burnout prevention
    • Using These Tools >
      • Meeting folks where they are at
      • Praxis assessment
      • Letting go of prescribed outcomes
      • Taking leadership from service users
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      • Modules 1-8 >
        • Modules Overview
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        • Getting Tested
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        • Overdose Prevention & Naloxone
      • Modules 9-15 >
        • Safer Injection Practices
        • Safer Inhalation Practices
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        • Drug Checking
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        • Peer Support
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  • The Meth Booklet
    • Introduction
    • Meth 101
    • History in Brief
    • Ways People Use
    • Reducing Meth’s Harm
    • Where Are You At?
    • Meth Psychosis
    • The Crash
    • Overdose
    • Treatment / Taking a Break
    • Sex & Meth
    • Links for Further Reading
  • Contact
ANKORS Street College
  • Home
  • About
  • Street College
    • Introduction >
      • History of Why?
      • What are Street College, Street School, SC Essentials?
      • Facilitator Readiness
    • Everyday Best Practice Recommendations >
      • Confronting Stigma
      • Understanding Intersectional Systems of Oppression
      • Real life needs of folks on the drug war front line
      • Staff self-care and burnout prevention
    • Using These Tools >
      • Meeting folks where they are at
      • Praxis assessment
      • Letting go of prescribed outcomes
      • Taking leadership from service users
      • Interagency Collaboration
    • Modules >
      • Modules 1-8 >
        • Modules Overview
        • Lesson Plan Template
        • Blood Borne Infections
        • Getting Tested
        • Navigating Health Care
        • Party Safe - Integrating Harm Reduction Into How We Use
        • Overdose Prevention & Naloxone
      • Modules 9-15 >
        • Safer Injection Practices
        • Safer Inhalation Practices
        • First Aid
        • Stigma
        • Living Outside
        • Drug Checking
        • Communication
        • Peer Support
    • Interactive Games and Activities
  • The Meth Booklet
    • Introduction
    • Meth 101
    • History in Brief
    • Ways People Use
    • Reducing Meth’s Harm
    • Where Are You At?
    • Meth Psychosis
    • The Crash
    • Overdose
    • Treatment / Taking a Break
    • Sex & Meth
    • Links for Further Reading
  • Contact

​Staff self-care and burnout prevention

Staff Self-Care and Burnout Prevention
​
​
The weight of living and working on the front lines of the drug war can be incredibly emotionally taxing. The tragic death toll amongst communities of people who use drugs has been on the rise for many years; the public health crisis as declared in 2016 was old news for communities of marginalized drug users. Poverty, homelessness and other marginalizing factors can be incredibly traumatizing. All this combined, anyone who interacts with this work likely is in some stage of grief and unresolved trauma. 

When working directly with peers, often non-peer workers walk a precarious line between taking on too much or shutting down in protection. We need to share collective ethics and hold each other and our work cultures into account to ensure we can do the work we need to do as sustainably as possible. Burnout was already long endemic to the social service field before the death toll of the opioid crisis started amassing. Many of us in the “caring professions” are caring because of a deep connection to the work, either personal, familial or relational; many of us come into this work because we have personal wounds around these issues. The traumas we have incurred that led us to the work, the traumas we have incurred within the work and the traumas we are working to help hold all need to be honoured as a part of burn-out prevention. Long hours, poor boundaries, underfunded programs, and lateral violence all impact our ability to take care of ourselves in this work. 

Supporting sustainable ways of working together involves the things we do on a personal level: self-care, what we do on a collective level: collective care, and what happens on systemic levels: systemic care. A robust burnout prevention strategy needs to involve a combination of all of the levels. 

Some examples: 
Self Care
Community Care
Systemic Care
Eating well
Sleep hygiene
Body work
Hot Bath
Spiritual Pursuit
Counselling
Calling In 
Holding Each other Capable
Debriefing challenging work
Respectful communication
Reciprocal support
Living Wages
Safe working conditions
Political change
Subsidized housing
Integrated child care
Vikki Reynolds resource:
https://openanswers.ca/blog/training/a-client-centered-approach-to-resisting-burnout-and-vicarious-trauma-the-zone-of-fabulousness/
ANKORS Street College - ©2020/21
  • Home
  • About
  • Street College
    • Introduction >
      • History of Why?
      • What are Street College, Street School, SC Essentials?
      • Facilitator Readiness
    • Everyday Best Practice Recommendations >
      • Confronting Stigma
      • Understanding Intersectional Systems of Oppression
      • Real life needs of folks on the drug war front line
      • Staff self-care and burnout prevention
    • Using These Tools >
      • Meeting folks where they are at
      • Praxis assessment
      • Letting go of prescribed outcomes
      • Taking leadership from service users
      • Interagency Collaboration
    • Modules >
      • Modules 1-8 >
        • Modules Overview
        • Lesson Plan Template
        • Blood Borne Infections
        • Getting Tested
        • Navigating Health Care
        • Party Safe - Integrating Harm Reduction Into How We Use
        • Overdose Prevention & Naloxone
      • Modules 9-15 >
        • Safer Injection Practices
        • Safer Inhalation Practices
        • First Aid
        • Stigma
        • Living Outside
        • Drug Checking
        • Communication
        • Peer Support
    • Interactive Games and Activities
  • The Meth Booklet
    • Introduction
    • Meth 101
    • History in Brief
    • Ways People Use
    • Reducing Meth’s Harm
    • Where Are You At?
    • Meth Psychosis
    • The Crash
    • Overdose
    • Treatment / Taking a Break
    • Sex & Meth
    • Links for Further Reading
  • Contact