Compassion satisfaction in victim services : focusing on the rewards of trauma work

Abstract

My intent with this project is to offer a valuable resource for individuals who are involved in offering police-based victim support services. Altogether, I have three aims to fulfill: (a) to provide a comprehensive review of the literature on compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction, and subsequently identify the need for more focus on compassion satisfaction; (b) to describe the current status of training that is provided to volunteer victim support workers in the Province of Alberta; and (c) to make a case for greater emphasis on compassion satisfaction to be incorporated into this training. The applied element of this project entails publication of a manuscript to help victim support volunteers maximize their experience of compassion satisfaction and promotion of a shift towards a more optimistic perspective of trauma work.