Self-care involves deliberate actions and behaviors to enhance mindfulness and well-being.  Burnout, vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and secondary trauma do not occur overnight. These result after continuous exposure to other people who are suffering and we are viewed as the direct service provider.  One way to decrease the impact of these stressors, is to be intentional and committed to self-care practices. Think of self-care like the importance of a storm drain. A storm drain keeps the streets from flooding and diverts water. If the storm drain is covered with leaves and debris, it cannot effectively divert the water, eventually causing flooding. Most storm drains do not clog overnight. Rather, it is over time without anyone coming by to clear out the twigs and leaves, the debris builds up and eventually clogs the storm drain. Self-care is the process of removing the debris each and every day, so that the storm drain can remain effective at its job.

Self-care will look different for each professional in this field. Some examples include: seeking mental health counseling, spending time with healthy friends and family, spending time with a pet, disconnecting from social media and electronic devices, spending time outdoors, engaging in physical activity, maintaining a healthy sleep schedule, and eating healthy (Trauma Stewardship Institute, personal communication, 2017).

Peter Levine explained in his book, Waking the Tiger, that it is essential for people to move trauma through their body. Take for example a gazelle and a tiger. The gazelle in the wild is chased by the tiger who sees the gazelle as prey. If the gazelle escapes from the tiger and does not become prey, it will return to its normal day of eating, sleeping, and excreting. The gazelle does not consciously think about the trauma it experienced moments ago where it was nearly eaten by a tiger. Human bodies experience similar releases of adrenaline and cortisol when responding to situations that occur in direct service. The unfortunate difference is that we rarely properly rid ourselves of the adrenaline and cortisol that releases in our brains after these stressful experiences. We often take in the trauma told to us and sit with the trauma in our bodies. In more extreme examples, this work does have a fair amount of critical incidents, which these too can cause us to take in stressful events without properly moving the cortisol and adrenaline out of our bodies once we have survived a critical incident. This can have lasting impacts in both emotional and physical well being.

An important piece to consider is finding a way to move trauma through your body to prevent a build up of adrenaline and cortisol in the body. This may include taking a hot shower after a stressful day at work. It could also mean moving your body after work. Running, walking, and exercise in any form can have significant benefits to decreasing stress build up in the body. Finding a physical or sensory routine to practice regularly can drastically reduce stress.  Self-care routines look different for each person, however the important piece is that self-care is incorporated and practiced on a daily basis. Again, just like the storm drain example, if we wait until the storm drain is clogged, it takes more to unpack than if we pick up the debris threatening to clog the storm drain each day.  Many people who work in direct service have daily routines to combat the build up of stress.  One example may include being intentional about commuting home from work.  A law enforcement officer may use time commuting home from work to decompress their day.  Once they are home, they may decide to discuss their day with family or friends for the first 15 minutes they are home and not discuss work until they return to duty the following day. Some people may set specific boundaries between home and work life.  Others may incorporate daily practices such as physical activity, free reading, hobbies, or activities that are not related to work.  The most important piece is to find a self-care activity that feels restorative and allows time to disconnect from the work that can be emotionally draining.

Figure 10.11. Images related to self-care including resting, meditating, cooking, and reading.

The Trauma Stewardship Institute is located in Oregon and focuses on the mental health and well being of those who provide direct service. The Trauma Stewardship Institute provides podcasts, presentations, workshops, and reading material for anyone providing direct service to people impacted by trauma. tiny survival guide

10.6.1 Risk and Protective Factors

Burnout, vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion fatigue present to people in the direct service field in varying degrees.  As mentioned earlier, these do not present overnight.  It is often a slow build, which makes it important to be aware of risk factors and protective factors that contribute to stress working in the criminal justice field. Risk factors are situations or actions that put a person more at risk of being impacted by burnout and other stressors listed above.  Protective factors are situations or actions that can protect a person from being impacted by burnout and other stressors.

According to Trauma Informed Oregon, there are several risk factors that can contribute to vicarious trauma, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress, and compassion fatigue.  Risk factors include a professional working in the criminal justice field having to ‘hold’ all the experiences they encounter from their families.  In direct service and law enforcement positions, professionals in this field are held to a high standard of confidentiality, which includes not disclosing information experienced on the job to even close family and friends.  Withholding stressful events from close family supports can begin to feel isolating.  Law enforcement can develop a view that people outside of the law enforcement field cannot relate to what they experience.  Someone’s personal trauma history can also be a risk factor if they are not aware of how their trauma history can impact them while working in this field.  It is essential for people with their own trauma histories to develop strong coping skills, so they can remain effective doing this work.  The length of time someone working in the criminal justice field can also have an impact and be a risk factor.  As mentioned above, burnout and other stressors do not occur overnight, it builds up over time, so healthy actions must be implemented throughout one’s career to minimize the impact of these risk factors.

TIC also identifies Stress Inoculation Training as a protective factor, specifically, “practicing responses to stressful situations in order to have the skills needed to regulate a stress response.” This type of training can be effective to help a professional working in the direct service field feel prepared in the event an escalated situation occurs.  Another way to do this is practicing a ‘what if’ scenario.  A ‘what if’ scenario example would be thinking through a situation that could occur and how someone would respond.  The idea behind this is to think through how to react in a situation before it occurs.  Practicing the ‘what ifs’ helps to mentally prepare someone for an event if it ever did occur.  An example may be a probation officer thinking through the ‘what if’ before they visit a person on supervision at their residence.  Example may be, what if the person has a friend over who has a warrant?  What if the person under supervision is under the influence?  What if I find a weapon in the home?  What if there is an aggressive dog?  Thinking through how to respond before the event occurs is a helpful protective factor to combat stress and enhance safety.

As described by Trauma Informed Oregon, protective factors can decrease the impacts of workplace stressors.  For instance, having a manageable caseload, feeling adequately trained, and having a supportive supervisor are all considered protective factors to combat burnout and other stressors.  Another protective factor is being able to see that the work you do means something.  Working in the criminal justice system often means that we see one layer or a snapshot of someone’s involvement in the system.  For instance, this may be the police officer only seeing the arrest that keeps a victimized person safe, or a correctional officer seeing a person detox off illicit substances.  It can also mean the substance use counselor seeing a client graduate from treatment, or a victim advocate seeing a restraining order be granted.  Being a part of these ‘snapshots’ in a person’s life can be difficult if we do not remember that our actions working in this field can have a lasting impact on others.  It can be helpful to envision actions as planting seeds.  A lot of seeds get thrown out and some may grow, the hope is that our compassionate actions can have lasting effects on those we interact with in the criminal justice field.

10.6.2 Benefits of the Criminal Justice Field

The criminal justice field comes with many benefits. This field generally has good benefits especially for those working in a state, county, or federal position. Many law enforcement positions offer a pension and generous retirement benefits. Many positions within the criminal justice field qualify as a public service occupation, which can have benefits for student loan forgiveness.

Those who work in direct service can have a direct impact on someone’s life who is involved in the criminal justice system. Although this field can be emotionally taxing, it can also be extremely rewarding to see people’s lives change and improve. The criminal justice system has so many layers and points of intercept for people in need of support, there are a variety of options to offer support depending on the individual’s specific passions and strengths. The best way to find what area of the criminal justice system fits best is to try out different occupations in the field. This can be achieved through internships, informational interviews, shadowing, or police ride-alongs. Spending time with those working in the field can provide opportunities to hear first hand the benefits and challenges with a specific career path.

Finding where your interests lie can be particularly helpful. For instance, consider finding a target population that is particularly interesting. This may be working with juveniles, adults, women, people with diagnosed mental health needs, people struggling with substance use disorders, or people with intellectual disabilities. It is also advantageous to consider what type of work feels most engaging. Consider day-to-day activities in the occupation and the pace and demands of that occupation. For instance, working in a controlled environment and as a law enforcement officer, is likely much more fast-paced than someone working in an outpatient setting. Lastly, it is important to consider the amount of schooling that is required for the career path of interest. As discussed earlier, many positions require a certain amount of schooling and/or advanced degrees. Certain positions also require specialized training and/or state board certifications. These requirements should all be considered to determine which career path will provide the best long-term success and satisfaction for you as a growing professional in the field of criminal justice.

 You may be the police officer making the initial arrest that causes a person to enter the criminal justice system or you may be the probation officer that sees a person successfully complete post-conviction supervision. You may be the lawyer who prosecutes someone who has been inflicting harm on victims for decades or the lawyer who assists in expunging someone’s lengthy criminal charges. Professionals rarely see the person’s success from point of entry to point of exit. Wherever your role applies in this large field, it has importance and significance. The main piece is that you find the career path that speaks to you and is most closely aligned with your professional values. Finding the area that fits best with your values will likely set you up for years of professional fulfillment in the criminal justice field.