Employee Wellness During COVID-19
|
|
COVID-19 has completely changed our way of working for the present. Some are still working from home, while others are beginning to return to their workplaces with new policies and restrictions in place. Even though some of us are returning to a familiar workplace and familiar hours, we have to realize that we are far from returning to “normal.” We have been and will continue to be in a state of high stress for many months to come. Changes in our normal routine, learning to maneuver new social rules, and concern for our own and loved ones’ health all add to the stress we already deal with in our jobs. We have heard from colleagues and from CACs who have the same common reactions:
- feeling overwhelmed
- decision fatigue
- lack of productivity
- inability to focus
- guilt over “neglecting” work to care for self or family
- guilt over inability to offer the same level of services to kids as normal
- uncertainty of timeline for returning to work
- tension between the desire to serve kids and fear of contracting COVID while serving kids.
- stress over having kids/parents/spouses at home all the time
- anxiety about increased caseloads in the near future
These are all common and normal feelings to have, but they can get in the way of living our everyday lives. How can we find ways to release some of this stress? In this issue, SRCAC has selected some resources that you can “watch,” “read,” and "do" which our staff and colleagues have found helpful in managing these reactions and maintaining resilience.
|
|
WATCH
“Strategies to Keep Us Grounded and Centered During Challenging Times,” a conversation with Diana Tikasz who is a Resilience Integration Specialist in Ontario, Canada and an associate at
Tend Academy
. In this conversation, Diana shares information about how our bodies are wired for fight/flight/freeze responses during stressful times and how we can develop and use micro-practices throughout our day to increase and maintain resilience. (
90 minutes)
TEDx Talks: “The Edge of Compassion” with Francoise Mathieu, co-founder and executive director of Tend Academy. Francoise talks about compassion fatigue and finding the “sweet spot” between caring too much about our work to the point where we burn out and not caring enough because we’ve become de-sensitized to the situations and cases we encounter. Francoise also discusses strategies for remaining in the green “zen” zone during challenging times and the warning signs that our bodies give us when we are heading to the yellow and red zones. (
18 minutes)
Seven Minute “Feet on the Floor” Grounding Technique by Diana Tikasz. In this short video, Diana walks you through a brief, simple exercise you can do standing up or sitting down that will help center you before, during, or after a particularly stressful event.
(
7 minutes)
|
|
READ
TEND Academy: COVID-19 Resources. These articles from TEND Academy focus on how to stay centered and grounded as you navigate home and work during these challenging times:
- Pandemic Etiquette: Tips to Manage Communication Expectations for Teams
- A New Balancing Act: Resources to Manage Working from Home & Parenting During the Pandemic
- This is a Marathon – Not a Sprint: Strategies to Address Wear and Tear in Helping Professionals during COVID-19
- Leaders Are People Too: Staying Well During COVID-19 – An Interview with Patricia Fisher
- Today, Spare a Thought for the Call Centre Operators
- Dealing with Stress and Uncertainty
|
|
DO
Managing Media Exposure. Do you check the news online or your Twitter feed or Facebook several times a day? If so, this may be increasing your anxiety and feelings of helplessness. This one-page guide provides practical tips for how to reduce the amount of potentially harmful media you consume on a daily basis.
d
|
|
Over the course of his presentation, Brian laid out the concrete steps that professionals could take to not just
survive
working in high trauma-exposed organizations like CACs but to
thrive
. The CE-CERT Model is also one of the few models that supervisors can utilize when providing STS-informed supervision to direct service providers. Since hearing him speak back in 2015, I have had the privilege of working with Brian as a part of the STS workgroup through NCTSN and the STS Consortium. I have heard him teach and train on his model several times, and each time I learn something new. His model is informed by research but is accessible and intuitive to adapt as a front-line worker or as a supervisor. As part of his model, Brian identifies five
practice elements
that professionals need:
1.
Experiential engagement
2.
Reducing rumination
3.
Conscious narrative
4.
Reducing emotional labor
5.
Parasympathetic recovery
The second practice of “reducing rumination” has really resonated with me and has been a strategy that I’ve used regularly. But what is “rumination” exactly? According to an article in
Psychology Today
,
“Rumination refers to the tendency to repetitively think about the causes, situational factors, and consequences of one’s negative emotional experience” (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991).
The American Psychological Association
reports that people may ruminate because 1) they think they will gain insight into their life or the problem that they are facing, 2) they have a history of emotional or physical trauma, 3) they are facing ongoing stressors that cannot be controlled.
For me, I would often find myself ruminating or replaying in my mind over and over again a meeting or difficult conversation, always thinking about what I should have said or could have said. In our work, ruminating on thoughts is a common means of coping for many professionals but can be unproductive and depleting. A forensic interviewer, for example, might repeatedly play a tape in their head of a particular interview, thinking, “If I had asked this question, would the child have disclosed? I should have phrased that question differently.”
The CE-CERT model has taught me how to manage and reduce my own ruminations, so I asked Brian to create a short piece called, “
Reducing Ruminations
,” to help other professionals understand and implement this important practice. This four-page guide talks about why we tend to ruminate and some practical suggestions for managing these ruminations. We hope you will find this resource to be another useful tool to add to your toolbox!
|
|
|
News from our State Chapters:
|
|
Florida Krimes Against Kids 2020 Conference is Going Virtual!
August 5-7, 2020
|
|
"The Florida Network of Child Advocacy Centers is pleased to announce our 2020 Krimes Against Kids Conference!
We have a great line up of workshops and up to 12 hours of CEUs available. Register today
to save your spot for Krimes Against Kids 2020. The cost is only $300 a person.
With over 50 workshops over three days, the 2020 Conference promises to provide something for everyone. Our faculty includes presenters who are recognized for their passion and expertise. This annual event has become a favorite for many professionals around the country, including law enforcement personnel, forensic interviewers, child protective service personnel, victim advocates, attorneys, prosecutors, therapists, counselors, and social workers."
|
|
This publication is funded through grant #2019-CI-FX-K003 from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Neither the U.S. Department of Justice nor any of its components, operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse, this publication (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided).
|
|
Southern Regional CAC | Vol. 3 No. 3: July 2020
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
