Lecture Overview
From Happy and Fulfilled to Sad and Angry: How Helping Animals Can Make Your Heart Hurt
The nature of animal work means that we are susceptible to compassion fatigue. This includes the moral stress that is an unavoidable part of this work. And trauma – both personal and occupational – can play a role in how we react to stressful situations. It helps to understand what compassion fatigue is and how it can creep into our daily work.
We will talk about:
- the individual and his/her ability to recognize compassion fatigue and learn to mitigate or heal from it, and
- the systemic, organizational stressors that affect our work and how the two can feed off of one another – or work toward creating a healthier environment.
Each attendee should come out of this presentation with a better understanding of his/herself and his/her role at the shelter and in the larger animal welfare community. Specific tools will be provided for creating a plan for working toward balance and emotional health in a very difficult field. There will be a 15-minute Q&A discussion at the end.
NOTE: If you would like to assess your current level of compassion fatigue beforehand you can access the Professional Quality of Life Scale’s Compassion Fatigue Self Test at http://proqol.org/ProQol_Test.html. On the right side click on “The ProQOL 5 Self-Score (English)” and it will be scored for you. If you speak another language there are accommodations for you, too.
Speaker Information
Anne Lindsay is the founder of MAC, which was founded in 2000. She was president of a canine rescue organization and learned firsthand about frontline animal welfare issues. After 12 years at a large shelter, she gained valuable experience behind the scenes as a part of the shelter’s management team.
In 2010 Anne earned her Masters degree in Counseling Psychology from Lesley University and has consulted with states, smaller communities, and individual shelters, helping them to form coalitions and work on board development. She has also focused on helping organizations and individuals to address the very real issue of “compassion fatigue.”
Anne is a past president of the board of the New England Federation of Humane Societies and is a board member of the State of Massachusetts Animal Response Team (SMART). She received various awards from the Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association, the American Veterinary Medical Association and the Animal Control Officers Association of Massachusetts.
Anne and her very patient and tolerant veterinarian husband David share their lives with 2 dogs, 3 cats and 6 hens.
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