Domestic and dating violence, or intimate partner violence, has a long term impact on women’s economic security. A lack of economic security can prevent a woman from leaving an abusive relationship and make it difficult to establish safety and financial independence. One of the ways that intimate partner violence affects women’s economic security is by impacting their ability to find and maintain employment.
Survivors may be prevented from working by an abuser. It is also common for an abuser to make it difficult for a survivor to get to work and maintain their employment.[i] These controlling behaviours are often referred to as employment sabotage. Employment sabotage can look like hiding a survivor’s car keys or starting an argument before work.[ii] It also looks like an abuser refusing to care for children while the survivor is at work and restricting access to alternative childcare.[iii] Employment sabotage shows up in the workplace, too. Survivors may receive excessive phone calls and text messages to the workplace or may experience stalking in and around the workplace.[iv] The sabotage tactics might start to involve co-coworkers. Lies told to co-workers by an abusive partner, such as claiming that the survivor stole from the company, can be used to damage the survivor’s employment or career progression.[v]
While there is a very little research into the impact of trauma on employment, there is some evidence to show that trauma from violence impacts the survivors’ ability to gain and sustain employment.[vi] The effects of trauma, like anxiety and depression, can impact a survivor’s performance and advancement at work.[vii] Knowing the long term effects of trauma, it could potentially impact a survivor’s job stability or career progression for many years.
The constant disruption, stress and harassments felt by a survivor can lead to a survivor missing work as well as reduced productivity when they are there. Because of this, intimate partner violence can be associated with career gaps, underemployment, and a loss of earnings.[viii] It can also lead to job loss. In some some cases, survivors may quit their employment because of feelings of shame associated with being a victim of violence or embarrassment over the abuser’s stalking or harassment in and around the workplace.[ix] In other causes, survivors may lose their jobs because of the number of missed days or the poor productivity and performance.[x]
However, the relationship between intimate partner violence and employment is complicated. For some survivors, violence spills over into the workplace. For other survivors, the workplace can be a place of safety or escape. Furthermore, employment is an important source of financial independence for survivors. This is why it is frequently targeted by abusers. These challenges can be further compounded by the structural barriers to employment that survivors face. For example, racialized women with experiences of violence face additional systemic barriers to equal pay and decent work.
With the increased risk of intimate partner violence and the fundamental shift to how we work amid the pandemic, it is vital that we we understand the changing realities faced by survivors.
The Intersections between employment and safety among racialized women project is undertaking research to understand racialized women’s experiences in employment and how these are impacted by experiences of intimate partner violence. The project will be undertaking primary research with survivors well as work with employment agencies and employers to improve policies and practice.
[i] Showalter, K. (2016). Women’s employment and domestic violence: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 31(01), 37-47.
[ii] Swanberg, J. E., Logan, T., and Macke, C. (2005). Intimate partner violence, employment and the workplace: consequences and future directions. Trauma, violence and abuse, 6(4), 286-312.
[iii] Hess, C; Del Rosario, A. (2018). Dreams Deferred: A Survey on the Impact of Intimate Partner Violence on Survivors’ Education, Careers, and Economic Security. Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
[iv] Logan, T.K., Shannon, L., Cole, J., and Swanberg, J. (2007) Partner stalking and implications for women’s employment. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 22(3),268-91.
[v] Moe, A.M and Bell, M.P. (2004). Abject Economics: The effects of battering and violence on women’s work and employability. Violence against Women, 10(01), 29- 55.
[vi] Riger, S. and Staggs, S. (2004). Impact of Intimate Partner Violence on Women’s Labor Force Participation, Final Report. National Institute of Justice, United States. Available at: https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/impact-intimate-partner-violence-womens-labor-force-participation-final-report
[vii] Showalter, 2016.
[viii] Tolman, R. M., & Raphael, J. (2000). A review of research on welfare and domestic violence. Journal of Social Issues, 56(4), 655-682.
[ix] Swanberg, Logan and Macke, 2005.
[x] Showalter, 2016.
Economic abuse is a common form of intimate partner violence. Studies have shown that anywhere from 94%[i] to 99%[ii] of women in abusive relationships have experienced some form of economic abuse. Economic abuse includes behaviours that control a person’s ability to gain or use economic resources. Some of the more common forms of economic abuse as a form of intimate partner violence include a partner restricting access to income, demanding to know how money was spent and withholding financial information. Another common tactic includes coerced debt in which a partner builds up debt in their partner’s name. Economic abuse often happens alongside other forms of abuse.
Economic abuse can be difficult to identify or may be overlooked. This is because it may be assumed customary or normal for men to bring in more income or manage the household finances. This can be complicated by the taboo around discussing money with those outside of the household. Economic abuse can have serious consequences. A lack of access to money makes it difficult for a woman to flee violence. A lack of income and savings alongside debt and poor credit can make it difficult for women to establish safety and independence because they cannot secure housing or meet their other daily needs.
With more than 99% of Canadians having a bank account[iii], financial services, such as banks, are in a good position to identify, prevent and respond to the economic abuse. Financial services can support in a variety of capacities. Financial services can help identify and intervene to support survivors as well as help survivors re-build their economic security. They can also help survivors and promote women’s economic security by developing products that may prevent abusive behaviours among families and are designed specifically for survivors.
Some jurisdictions have recognized the value of financial services in playing a role in the prevention and response to economic abuse. The Members of UK Finance and Building Societies Association and the Australian Banking Association have developed industry guidelines for financial services. These guidelines recommend that banks and other financial services train employees on identifying financial abuse and create policies to help employees identify and respond to customers experiencing financial abuse.
With such a large audience, financial services could also help raise awareness of financial abuse among the public as well as start to challenge and shift the gender norms related to money that perpetuate women’s financial dependence and economic insecurity.
Addressing gender-based violence requires a coordinated and holistic approach from multiple services, including the private sector. While historically, a multi-agency response to intimate partner violence has included justice partners and agencies providing support to victims, the prevalence of economic abuse as well as the importance of financial well-being as a key safety factor, makes a case that financial services should also be a part of this response.
Interested in learning more about the role of financial services in the prevention and response to economic abuse? You can read our brief here.
[i] Adams, A.E., Sullivan, C.M., & Greeson, M.R. (2008). Development of the Scale of Economic Abuse. Violence Against Women 14(5), 563 – 588.
[ii] Postmus, J.L., Plummer, S.B., McMahon, S., Murshid, N.S., & Kim, M.S. (2012) Understanding Economic Abuse in the Lives of Survivors. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 27(3), 411 – 430.
[iii] Canadian Bankers Association (2021) Focus: Banks and Consumers. https://cba.ca/banks-and-consumers
The COVID19 pandemic may be novel, but the connection between violence and women’s economic security is not. As governments start to develop economic recovery plans, it is critical that women’s safety is priority.
Women’s economic security and safety are connected. Without economic resources, women are unable to flee violent situations and face a greater risk of exploitation and victimization. Violence also has long term impacts on women’s economic well-being. Women with a history of domestic violence change jobs more often and are more likely to be in casual and part-time jobs than women without experiences of violence.
Survivors also experience financial hardship after fleeing violence such as debt, poor credit scores, and ongoing legal costs. These financial pressures make it difficult for survivors to rebuild their financial stability.
With a reported increase in gender-based violence during the COVID-19 pandemic and the significant economic toll on women – like disproportionate jobs losses and an increase in care responsibilities – rebuilding the economy cannot be at the cost of women’s safety.
Domestic violence in the workplace
Domestic violence often spills over into or near the workplace and can impact an employees’ concentration, attendance and performance at work. With an estimated one in three workers reported to have ever experienced domestic violence in Canada,[i] it is essential that employers understand their legislative requirements as well as how they can recognize domestic violence among employees and provide the necessary support.
Sexual violence and harassment in the workplace
While violence is present in all workplaces, women are more likely to experience sexual harassment. Some women are disproportionately affected because of their employment status, the nature of their work or their working conditions. Sexual violence and harassment is particularly common in male-dominated workplaces. As governments start to look at removing barriers for women to fields in which they are underrepresented, it is critical that these fields of work are safe.
Survivors re-entering the workforce
Survivors face barriers to maintaining employment or entering the workforce because of the health impacts of abuse as well as control tactics of abusers. Some survivors face barriers due to having large gaps in their careers because of their abusive relationship. With a focus on achieving the shortest route to work, as typically found in employment and income support programs, survivors are often forced to accept precarious work. There is an opportunity to ensure women’s full access to decent work but this cannot be done without investments into childcare, housing and workforce development initiatives.
This is an opportunity to design things differently – to listen to survivors to understand the economic and safety barriers that they face and to co-create solutions.
This is an opportunity to rebuild things differently – to establish services, policies and social conditions that promote women’s economic security, independence and safety.
Check out our submission to Ontario’s Task Force on Women and the Economy
[i] Wathen, C.N., MacGregor, J.C.D., and MacQuarrie, B.J. (2014) Can Work be Safe, When Home Isn’t? Initial Findings of a Pan-Canadian Survey on Domestic Violence and the Workplace.
On August 31, 2021 the Pay Equity Act will come into force requiring federally registered employers to proactively plan around and compensate for pay gaps between women and men. The Pay Equity Act Canada has been in development for the last 6 years to help close the gender wage gap in federally registered workplaces. In Canada, women earn on average .89 cents to every dollar earned by men.[i]
The new Act employs aspects of current equity pay legislation already in place in many provinces such as requiring employers to create job classifications based on gender and putting the responsibility on the employer to look at their practices and compensation schemes. It takes the onus away from employees to seek equal compensation, and makes employers review and change their practices. Employers will have to create equity plans and undergo yearly audits to look at the differences in their wages between female job classes and male job classes. A Pay Equity Commissioner will oversee implementation and compliance. Federal employers will have 3 years to implement any new compensation structures.
This new Act is intended to ensure that women and men receive equal pay for work of equal value versus equal pay for equal work. This is defined under the Act as job classes which predominantly are either occupied by men or women and have comparable skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions. For example, valuing equally the physical work required by female cashiers to that of a male stockperson. The Act is aimed at making sure that job classes that women are overrepresented in due to gender stereotyping, are not underpaid and undervalued.
How will this impact women?
In Ontario, federally registered workplaces account for around 10% of all workplaces. They are not industries with a high representation of women such as the service sector, including food services and retail,[ii] which are already covered by the provincial Equity Act Ontario since 1990. However, it is an important step to make federal workplaces in alignment with existing rights in Ontario.
Further, there are many factors that contribute to the pay gap. Although pay equity legislation is an important step, the gender pay gap is only one symptom of the wider societal and structural forms of discrimination that impact women’s participation in the economy. Women are more likely to be in part-time employment due to a lack of affordable childcare and an unequal division of family responsibilities.[iii] Women are also more likely to be in precarious work and are overrepresented in certain sectors[iv] which can harm their opportunities for meaningful employment. This has been especially highlighted during the pandemic with statistics showing that women’s employment has been consistently impacted at higher rates than men.[v]
Violence is another barrier faced by women to accessing decent and meaningful employment. It is estimated that half of Canadian women over the age of 16 have had at least one experience of physical or sexual violence in their life time.[vi] Some studies show that women who have experienced intimate partner violence are more likely to be in part-time employment, and earn 60% lower than women who have not.[vii] In addition, the gender pay gap is different among different groups of women. While the average gender pay gap for women in Ontario is 29.3%, racialized women in Ontario experience a gender pay gap of 38%, immigrant women in Ontario experience a gender pay gap of 34% and women with disabilities face a 56% wage gap.[viii]
Although the Pay Equity Act brings another promising development, more policies are needed to eradicate the multiple barriers different women face to fully participate in the economy.
[i] Statistics Canada (2020a) Table 14-10-0340-02 Average and median gender wage ratio, annual. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/1410034001-eng
[ii] Statistics Canada (2020b)Table 14-10-0023-01 Labour force characteristics by industry, annual (x 1,000). DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/1410002301-eng
[iii] Dupont, Anne-Helene. ‘Why are there more women working part-time?’ (Part-time.ca) October 16, 2018. Why Are There More Women Working Part Time? | Part-time.ca
[iv] Statistics Canada (2020c)Table 14-10-0327-03 Proportion of workers in full-time and part-time jobs by sex, annual. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/1410032701-eng
[v] Douwere, G. and Lu, Y. (2021) Gender differences in employment one year into the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis by industrial sector and firm size. Statistics Canada
[vi] Statistics Canada (1993) Violence Against Women Survey [Archived] Available at: Surveys and statistical programs – Violence Against Women Survey (VAWS) (statcan.gc.ca)
[vii] Lakshmi, P. (2016) ‘Speech-The economic costs of violence against women’ The economic costs of violence against women | UN Women – Headquarters
[viii] Equal Pay Coalition available at www.equalpaycoalition.org
Last week, Ontario released its 2021 budget. The budget focuses on protecting people’s health and the economy, and it charts the Province’s plan to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. With a deficit expected until at least 2029, it is clear that Ontario is facing historic economic pressures – and so too are women.
Women have experienced disproportionate impacts of COVID-19. This is especially true for women who are racialized, recent immigrants, and working in low-wage jobs, along with other intersecting inequities. They have borne the brunt of job losses, sustained our essential workforce, assumed additional household duties, and endured a catastrophic rise in gender-based violence.
So how does Ontario’s budget fare when it comes to supporting women?
The good: Recognition of the pandemic’s impact on women
Ontario has recognized the gendered impact of COVID-19 within the budget, with dedicated sections on the economic challenges faced by women and the need to support victims of domestic violence and human trafficking. The budget presents new funding pools for violence against women, including $18.5 million over three years to support victims of domestic violence to find and maintain housing and $18.2 million over three years to support ending violence against First Nations, Inuit, and Métis women and girls. In addition to these investments, the budget commits to the development of a task force to address the economic impacts of the pandemic on women.
The bad: A focus on individual finances over system investments
Many of the budget’s new investments administer funds directly to Ontarians. For example, the Province is enhancing its childcare tax credit, doubling its COVID-19 child benefit, and introducing a jobs training tax credit to help workers grow their skills. While employment and childcare are critical components of women’s economic recovery, these individual-level investments are not solutions for system-level problems. They won’t create more childcare spaces, they won’t sustainably lower childcare fees, and they won’t create the tailored supports that women need to re-enter the labour market. Moreover, tax credits are not an accessible option for the many women and families who cannot afford upfront costs. Some funding has been allocated at the system level for women: $2.1 million over three years for victims of violence, aimed at expanding programs in underserved communities, increasing access to legal support, and improving integrated service delivery. However, this amount is clearly insufficient to respond to the ‘shadow pandemic’ of gender-based violence that we’ve seen intensify over the past year.
The missing: Support for Ontario’s renters and workers
Throughout the pandemic, advocates have called for two key investments to address the impacts of COVID-19: residential rent relief and paid sick days. The budget is notably silent on both of them. The budget is also lacking any clear investments to increase Ontario’s limited affordable housing stock. Stable tenancies and paid leave policies are critical for women-led households and survivors of domestic violence to secure financial independence and avoid homelessness – especially during a pandemic – making this budget omission a setback for gender equity.
Unprecedented impacts call for unprecedented investments. This budget acknowledges the challenges ahead for women, but offers few bold actions to address them. As Ontario enters a third wave of COVID-19 and begins to put recovery plans into motion, it needs to prioritize an equitable way forward. Immediate investments that enable women to build economic security – like accessible and affordable childcare, fair wages and working conditions, and affordable housing options – will put us on the best path to truly protecting our health and economy.
Finances play an important role in every person’s life. But despite advances made to women’s economic security in recent decades, women continue to face very different financial challenges than men. These challenges are felt by women in their everyday lives, including in their homes.
It starts at work. In addition to the persistent gender wage gap, women across Canada are still more likely to work in jobs with financial instability, poor working conditions and limited employee protections. This has been highlighted in the past year with women accounting for over 60% of all pandemic-related job losses in Canada.[1]
It also happens at home. Women are more likely to be responsible for daily household spending and yet are less likely to be a part of the large financial decisions in the household.[2] These gender norms spill into public policies and practices too. In heterosexual couples, financial support or payments are often made to the man by default. This is increasingly problematic when policies require that finances are joined after a couple has been residing together for only a short period of time. Furthermore, we often hear from women that their financial knowledge and skills are undermined by professionals in the finance industry.
The effects of these disparities can be devastating. Financial dependence and economic insecurity have a major impact on women’s safety. They can marginalize women, increasing their risk of intimate partner violence and making it harder for them to leave violent situations. Violence results in costs for women including health costs, lost wages and moving expenses. Women are also faced with long-term financial consequences once they have left a violent relationship such as debt, poor credit, a diminished ability to work and ongoing legal costs. Financial hardship after leaving an abusive relationship is a near universal experience for women.
Right now, we have the chance to improve this. Canada is currently revising and renewing its National Strategy on Financial Literacy. In our response to its consultation process, we highlighted the need for strategies on financial literacy to consider the complex and intertwined barriers faced by women in achieving financial security. This includes gender norms related to money, public policies that undermine women’s financial independence and the prevalence of financial abuse in relationships across Canada.
To strengthen its approach, we also recommended that the National Strategy on Financial Literacy:
These changes can help to set women on a path to financial independence and long-term economic security – a very worthwhile investment.
Interested in learning more about financial literacy and violence against women? You can read our full submission here.
[1] Scott, K. (2020). Women bearing the brunt of economic losses one in five have been laid off or had hours cut. Behind the Numbers. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Retrieved from: http://behindthenumbers.ca/2020/04/10/women-bearing-the-brunt-of-economic-losses-one-in-five-has-been-laid-off-or-had-hours-cut/
[2] OECD (2013) Addressing women’s needs for financial education. Retrieved from: https://www.oecd.org/daf/fin/financial-education/OECD_INFE_women_FinEd2013.pdf
As my mom grasped the phone to check her app, the only thing on her mind was to check in on a friend that was miles away. Innovations in technology have made it so that my mother, and perhaps, many other women, now feel empowered by connections developed in virtual spaces during this novel time. As I reflect on my experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, I can’t help but think that it has forced me to explore some good that lies in social distancing and help me to feel grateful that I live in a digital age.
Staying in Touch: A Feminist Approach
The social distancing measures during the pandemic have changed my perceptions of the word “community” and “connection.” Women often bond over common hardships and obstacles, which in this case is the COVID-19 pandemic. We are all experiencing similar hardships to a certain degree. Studies corroborate with this notion as well. According Staeheli (2003), women use the concept of community to establish common ground and shared experiences that help them overcome hardship.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, having close physical proximity did, in many ways, offer women bonds and strength within their respective communities. During these troubled times, however, technology has allowed us to know that there are universal feelings of anxiety, overwhelm, fear, stress, and loneliness. This allows us to witness the transformative power of emotional connection. It is possible women across communities feel a sense of comfort in knowing they are not alone and that they belong to more communities and networks than they realize.
The Ever-Expanding Role of Technology
I understand that there are many counter-arguments on the impact of technology on our well-being. However, I don’t necessarily think we have many other options. We need technology during this time and we need to find ways to ensure we are comfortable with using technology to connect. We have to ensure we physically distance, not emotionally disconnect. This emotional connection is the engagement we have with the user behind the screen, not with the device.
Much of our aspects of life have been shifted to online. With the right amount of online safety training and digital literacy, women can feel more confident using digital spaces to seek help. Women use social media, online chat and text services, virtual girls’ programming to stay connected. Through efforts to encourage women’s digital usage, not only could we further emotional connection post-COVID-19, but there is potential for women to bolster their economic security, enhance their autonomy and safety.
While my daily screen time has never been higher, as a young woman I find myself using technology in a positive and meaningful way. As a result of staying in touch with friends and family members, writing letters to vulnerable populations, and providing peer support clients online, I am experiencing a feeling of interconnectedness differently than before. While this experience may or may not resonate with you, I think it is an opportunity to reflect and discuss the role of technology in keeping women connected.
Staeheli, L.A. (2003). Women and the Work of Community. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 35(5), 815–831.
Women and communities of gender diverse people have complicated relationships with social media. We always have. Social media is often a tool enabling violence online – used by perpetrators to control victims directly on social media or by controlling how and when social media and technology is accessed.
But sometimes social media can be empowering – bringing likeminded and similarly-experienced communities together. Communities can share resources, promote and celebrate each other’s successes, and bring to light the issues that matter most. During the time of COVID-19, one of many issues that is top of mind for me is the increase of gender based violence, as women and gender diverse people are trapped with abusers in violent spaces; as individuals cannot seek out the resources in person that they typically would; as communities cannot physically be in each other’s comfort. But, there is hope.
As the world has grown exponentially more reliant on technology and digital spaces through the last few months of this pandemic, survivors have found ways to support each other through COVID-19. While technology is not accessible to all, and that is a conversation that requires great exploration and understanding, I am grateful for the way communities of survivors have resiliently leveraged technology to be in our favour during COVID-19.
This includes the increase of accessible physical wellbeing resources that give folks free tools to take care of their physical health within their own comfort, away from spaces that may be uncomfortable or triggering. Examples include Zoom exercise classes, meditation and YouTube channels. Secondly, countless women’s organizations have pivoted their programming to be entirely online, providing counselling and workshops virtually. Survivors are also creating their own community care circles – kind of like pseudo group therapy that replaces the in person meet-ups a lot of us had – for their own networks; some might be created on Facebook and be more informal, while others feature guest speakers in official Zoom events. A popular hand signal created by the Canadian Women’s Foundation (https://bit.ly/2YWFGnN) has allowed people facing violence to let others know to check up on them. These are just some of the examples that I’ve seen.
As the months go by, one thing has been clear for me, and that is that survivors of violence have always been resilient and will continue to be that way – pandemic, or no pandemic.
As part of their annual End Violence Against Women Week, the Woman Abuse Council of Toronto hosted over 250 participants per day for a week of education, training and discussions in Toronto, Ontario. On Tuesday morning, one of their featured keynotes was Dr. Gabor Maté, a physician, best-selling author and renowned speaker on a range of issues such as addiction studies and childhood development. His focus was centered on the idea of “compassion fatigue”, really premised on how to care for others while caring for ourselves. Compassion fatigue is more than just what is commonly known as ‘burning out’, it refers to “the overall experience of emotional and physical fatigue that social service professionals experience due to chronic use of empathy when treating patients who are suffering in some way”[1]. It’s also been referred to as ‘the cost of caring’. This is certainly a topic many people in the audience could identify with.
Dr. Maté is known nationally and is praised in harm reduction communities for his work in Vancouver’s downtown east side for over 12 years. If you’ve ever read his books, he weaves case studies with scientific theory, and his own experiences. The premise is that much ‘addiction’, mental illness or problematic behaviours is rooted in a common pathway: trauma – or hurt from one’s childhood, and the idea that the “patterns we develop around pain continue to generate more pain”.
Applying this to the case of compassion fatigue, Dr. Maté went on to explain that people who work with vulnerable communities can also be traumatized from working and hearing about other people’s trauma. The idea of compassion fatigue then becomes also rooted in our own “stuff” – meaning it’s less about the nature of the work itself, but how we relate to the work and how we care for ourselves. More broadly, we often worry about others without taking care of our own emotional responses, and most often women are ‘programmed’, or socially conditioned, to take that role on. The idea of compassionate fatigue is what Dr. Maté more accurately described as lack-of-compassion-for-the-self fatigue. Further, it can be part of a deeper inability to say no, which can exacerbate the difficult nature of the work.
Very central to Dr. Maté’s talk was the mind /body connection. In fact, historically, different medical traditions around the world are very much premised on the idea that the two can’t be separated. But in Western medicine, although we have made lots of scientific advances when it comes to acute care, in dealing with chronic conditions, we often focus on simply alleviating symptoms despite what traditional wisdom has taught us about this interconnection.
So in this way an illness is not just individual, it’s also conditioned by social facts. For example, Dr. Maté described a study which included both children and mothers. The children of mothers who are stressed and depressed were linked to an increased likelihood of having asthma. Stress, then, can be a powerful social experience, which is not just emotional but also physiological. The centers in the brain that process emotion are connected to one unifying system that includes our hormonal apparatus, nervous system, heart, gut, and more, and any aspect will have impacts on other functions. It makes sense that emotions are deeply implicated in the development of illness. These are observations that Dr. Maté makes based on his own experience working with chronically ill patients, and really prioritizes the critical role of individual emotional make up in a variety of disease.
On the role of burnout, I appreciated the idea that burnout is tied to us having to deal with our own self, but also that many people, particularly those working with vulnerable populations, often forget about their own self-care. The health, both mental and physical, of frontline workers, is influenced by the conditions in which they live and work. Particularly with workloads increasing and funding being reduced across the community service sector, front line workers often put their own physical, emotional and spiritual needs aside.
I really enjoyed the talk, and questions ranged from sharing experiences to queries about how we can be better at identifying the need for self-care. One question I had centered on the idea of trauma and how we define these experiences. For example, I struggle with the idea that all addiction is rooted in trauma precisely because if you look hard enough, don’t we all have some experiences that can be interpreted as trauma? Do childhood stressors always manifest itself as elevated risks? And if trauma really can be found or interpreted in anyone’s past (if we look hard enough), then how does this shape the explanatory power of how trauma affects our behaviours?
Overall, what really resonated with me was the need to listen to our bodies—and our gut, and unpacked a deeper source around the idea we know as “burnout”. Many people in the audience provide intensive support for others in time of transition and crisis. This work is arduous, demanding and complex, and often self-care takes a backseat. But every once in a while, the helper needs to be reminded to take care of themselves.
[1] Newell, J. M., & MacNeil, G. (2010). Professional burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion fatigue: A review of theoretical terms, risk factors, and preventive methods for clinicians. Best Practices in Mental Health: An International Journal, 6 (2), 57-68
