Ethics and Compassion Fatigue (Virtual Event)
Presented by NASW-MO
3.0 Clock hours
*** This course meets the 3.0 hour Ethics requirement for licensure renewal. ***
“Alternatively called secondary trauma, secondary traumatic stress (STS), or vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue is an overwhelming mental and physical exhaustion brought on by feeling the pain, stress, and other emotions of the people they are helping,” (UK College of Social Work, 2022). Compassion fatigue can impair us, our lives, and our ability to provide ethical care to whom we provide services. The 2021 revisions to the NASW Code of Ethics dictate that social workers “should take measures to care for themselves professionally and personally,” recognizing how important and pervasive this phenomenon is (NASW, 2021). But how? This presentation addresses the following questions: What does it mean to care for ourselves ethically? How does compassion fatigue impact our ability to perform our jobs? How do we know when this is happening? How does compassion fatigue impair our judgment, integrity, and trustworthiness? What can we do to avoid and mitigate the impacts of compassion fatigue?
