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:
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 |