ompassion 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? “Absenteeism,” said Cheldelin
Fell. Your battery is low, you’re physically tired,
you’re mentally tired, you’re going to call in sick.
What happens when someone calls in sick is
the caseload gets put on your colleagues. Some
might go to work but are not really being there
if they’re mentally checked out.
Another
way
compassion
fatigue
affects
the funeral home is in what she called
“presenteeism,” which is when someone shows
up for work, but they are not really there.
“Because you are mentally and emotionally
tired, your productivity decreases,” she said.
“When we’re stressed, when we’re fatigued,
we don’t get as much done because we move
slower, we make errors – not intentionally, of
course, but they happen. Compassion fatigue
can trigger a lapse in judgment as well.
Unmitigated
compassion
fatigue
leads
to
burnout. A high staff turnover rate will negatively
impact a funeral home. A funeral home owner
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.
THANOS MAGAZINE | No. 107 – AUTUMN 2024
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