Mental Health – Barbara Rubel – Compassion Fatigue Keynote Speaker

Suicide Prevention in a Vicarious Trauma-Informed Workplace

Barbara Rubel — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 21:13:47 +0000

Promoting Self-Compassion and Suicide Prevention in a Vicarious Trauma-Informed Workplace

Suicide remains a critical global health concern, demanding accessible interventions to safeguard those working with those who are traumatized, grieving, or struggling with a crisis in their life. Exposure to vicarious trauma is a reality for police, firefighters, emergency personnel, mental health professionals, and social workers, potentially leading to symptoms mirroring those they assist.

First responders and helping professionals have the opportunity to develop internal resources that can help them manage suicidal thoughts. These professionals may have feelings of thwarted belongingness—where they feel disconnected and don’t belong—and perceived burdensomeness—feeling like a burden or liability—both of which are strongly linked to suicidality. The research underscores that low self-compassion exacerbates these factors, highlighting the potential for enhancing self-compassion to reduce the risk of suicide (Bianchini & Bodell, 2024).

Professionals can develop symptoms similar to those they help, such as anxiety, hopelessness, isolation, low self-esteem, and depressive symptoms, all of which are associated with suicidal thinking. However, individuals with high levels of anxiety and depression and who practice self-compassion are less likely to engage in suicidal behaviors (Kelliher-Rabon et al., 2018). Self-compassion mediates the link between negative affect and suicidal ideation (Hasking et al., 2019). A vicarious, trauma-informed workplace acknowledges these challenges and the need to support these professionals.

Can self-compassion be the difference between life and death?

Self-compassion involves directing kindness inwardly. It is a crucial aspect of addressing suicide risk among first responders and helping professionals. It can be nurtured through internal resources that empower them to navigate challenges with self-kindness and understanding. So, what are these internal resources? Alongside resilience, creativity, problem-solving skills, mindfulness, self-awareness, and a positive outlook, several other internal resources contribute to fostering self-compassion:

Coping Strategies: Techniques like relaxation, emotional regulation, and seeking social support can help manage difficult emotions.
Spirituality: beliefs and practices that foster self-acceptance during tough times.
Adaptability: Being open to change enhances perspective and supports self-compassion amidst challenges.
Sense of Purpose: Clarity in life’s meaning strengthens resilience and sustains self-compassion through setbacks.
Emotional Intelligence: Understanding and empathizing with difficult emotions aids in responding to challenges with self-compassion.
Appreciating Social Support: Strong relationships bolster feelings of connection and support.
Prioritizing Physical Health: Exercise, rest, and nutrition bolster mental well-being, facilitating self-compassionate responses to challenges.

Best Practices for Fostering a Self-Compassionate Workplace

Although there are various strategies to prevent suicide among professionals, agencies and organizations can implement these practices:

Cultural Shifts: Foster a workplace culture that prioritizes wellness and emotional well-being.
Leadership Responsibilities: Equip leaders with skills to model and support self-compassionate behaviors among supervisors and teams.
Peer Trust: Cultivate trust and collaboration among team members to create a supportive environment.
Holistic Approach: Embrace holistic self-care strategies encompassing mental, emotional, and physical well-being organization-wide.

Challenges in Vicarious Trauma Prevention Efforts

As a keynote speaker and trainer on compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma, I have learned much from the attendees of my programs. Here are the challenges that they bring up regarding their efforts to prevent vicarious trauma in the workplace:

Insufficient prioritization of vicarious trauma-informed practices in workplace culture.
Lack of clear guidelines on stress reduction strategies and protective factors.
Limited financial resources are allocated for vicarious trauma-informed training and support.
High turnover rates necessitate frequent vicarious trauma training.
Employees’ inadequate self-care skills and uncertainty about where to seek help.
The emotional strain is heightened by current events and societal issues.

In conclusion, creating a workplace that embraces self-compassion involves addressing challenges in vicarious trauma prevention and implementing comprehensive strategies that support employee well-being at every level of the organization.

Barbara Rubel Receives Speaker of the Year 2024 Award

Barbara Rubel — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 22:23:13 +0000

The Influential Businesswomen awards, presented by Acquisition International (AI), are being held for the ninth year to honor all of the award recipients and their achievements. Each year, Acquisition International honors and highlights the accomplishments of the most remarkable and inspirational female business leaders from all over the world.

For the second year in a row, Barbara Rubel has been given the First Responder Mental Health & Wellness Speaker of the Year 2024 award. It is a long journey from being initially nominated, undergoing the research and judging stages, and finally receiving the award.

Barbara responded to winning the award:

“I am thrilled to announce that I have been honored with the “First Responder Mental Health & Wellness Speaker of the Year 2024 (South Atlantic USA)” Award in the Acquisition International Influential Businesswomen Awards 2024! This prestigious award celebrates women globally who drive innovation and catalyze change. I am deeply grateful for the recognition, especially as a keynote speaker on vicarious trauma for over 25 years.

Congratulations to all the industry disruptors, innovation pioneers, and exceptional first responders, victim services, and healthcare leaders who received awards this year. I extend my heartfelt thanks to those who nominated me. Being acknowledged for my dedication to suicide prevention, support for the traumatically bereaved, and assistance for professionals coping with compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma is truly humbling.”

As part of the Influential Businesswoman Awards 2024, Barbara is included in the company listing in the A-Z directory of awardees. Here is this year’s directory of awardees – Acquisition International Winners List.

The Acquisition International winners supplement can be seen on the Acquisition International website.

Thwarted Belongingness, Perceived Burdensomeness, Hopelessness, and Cognitive Distortions for First Responders

Barbara Rubel — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 16:39:03 +0000

For all first responders whether law enforcement, emergency medical personnel or paramedics, or firefighters, there is a connection or link between thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, hopelessness, and cognitive distortions.

Thwarted Belongingness

According to Thomas Joiner’s interpersonal psychological theory of suicide, feeling like you don’t belong and that you are a burden can trigger suicidal thoughts. When a person lacks deep relationships with those around them, they are lonely and socially disconnected. If they feel that others are not reciprocating their feelings, they experience a sense of thwarted belongingness.

Furthermore, after retirement, a first responder no longer has many of the stable interpersonal relationships that they had while they were working. They can experience loneliness due to having fewer social connections. Although those individuals still working do care, the retiree may feel as though no one cares about them anymore. Being that thwarted belongingness is a risk factor for suicide ideation, it is important to talk about.

Perceived Burdensomeness

It’s possible that my father, a retired police officer, may have killed himself because he felt that his health issues made him a burden to his wife and children. Because I was due to give birth to triplets, he may have felt that his medical issues would be too much of a burden to his family.

When someone perceives themselves as being useless or a burden to others because of the work involved in taking care of them, that is perceived burdensomeness. They may also think that they make no contribution to the lives of those around them, making them more of a liability than an asset to the total well-being of the group. Research demonstrates that perceived burdensomeness is one factor in determining suicidality in Veterans.

Hopelessness

Gradus and Associates discovered in 2010 that individuals who have depression and PTSD have a much higher suicide mortality rate. Many first responder departments put most of their focus on PTSD, but they should also be concentrating on depression, insomnia, hopelessness, and stress caused by trauma. They must be cognizant of how a first responder’s personal accomplishments outside of work act as a protectant, and they can help increase self-confidence and belief in themselves in the face of challenges at work by offering specialized psychological care to reduce feelings of hopelessness and educational support to lower stress. This can easily be done through classes on wellness. Also, departments should focus on the importance of getting check-ups.

Hopelessness is strongly predicted by burnout and depression. Financial difficulties, health issues, and negative life events that have lowered one’s self-esteem can all contribute to feelings of hopelessness. Hopelessness can cause one to be unable to think about the future, and to feel a sense of desperation and loss of hope. When working with a first responder dealing with hopelessness, it is just as important to hear what they are not saying, as much as what they are saying.

Cognitive Distortions

Suicidal thoughts can be triggered by different things, but a first responder who is thinking about killing themself may be experiencing cognitive distortions. These are incorrect, irrational, or excessive ways of thinking, and it is believed that they play a significant role in the development and persistence of a number of mental disorders.

Finding some middle ground can be challenging for first responders who suffer from cognitive distortions. They could isolate themselves because they believe they are a bad person, a failure, that they don’t belong, or that they are a burden to others.

Questions to Ask First Responders

If a first responder is thinking things that are not necessarily true, they need support. Here are 10 questions to pose to a first responder on the judgments they make about themselves as a result of cognitive mistakes:

Are they putting unnecessary blame on themself?
Are they assuming the worst of the situation?
Are they thinking in an extreme way about what happened?
Do they focus more on what they perceive to be their failures instead of their successes?
Do they describe themself with negative language?
Are they personalizing what happened, even though it wasn’t their fault?
Do they focus more on negative thoughts rather than positive thoughts?
Are they drawing conclusions without any evidence to back them up?
Are the conclusions that they draw from what happened not telling the whole story?
Have they told anyone what they are thinking or are they too embarrassed?

These questions are meant to make a first responder aware of the possibility that occasionally their perceptions may not be accurate. Cognitive distortions are flawed thought patterns that can adversely affect behavior. Whether they jump to conclusions, over-generalize, or blame themselves, they are not alone. If you are a peer, help them or get them the professional help that they need. Don’t allow shame, stigma, or first responder culture to get in the way of their wellness.

Encouraging Law Enforcement to Seek Mental Health Support

Barbara Rubel — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 16:20:53 +0000

LEOs are not asking for mental health support. Let’s work on changing that.

Law enforcement officers (LEOs) face common mental health issues and often believe that treatment is effective, but professionally risky. They may fear a fitness for duty evaluation (FFDE) if they self-disclose that they need the help of a mental health professional. They may feel anxious about the possibility of losing their job. Masculinity within police culture can get in the way of their getting help. Let’s work on changing that!

Work-Related Stress

There are many issues that influence a law enforcement officer’s stress including organizational practices, a supervisor’s discipline style, and workplace discrimination. They may be second guessed, experience frequent criticism, and be sexually harassed. They may lack recognition and be denied requested days off. Work schedules such as long work hours, shiftwork, night shift, and excessive overtime impact their wellness. LEOs are stressed out by co-worker relations such as lack of peer support, and fellow police officers may not be doing their job.

Potential dangers include threatening job risks, violent confrontations with the public, and the possibility of being injured. Moreover, trauma is extremely stressful on their body. Take for example, the body’s experience after a critical incident, a serious accident, exposure to suffering, a failed attempt at a civilian’s resuscitation, or seeing abused children or dead children. Not being able to manage their stress response can be deadly and bring about a mental health crisis. Let’s work on changing that!

When Work-related Stress Gets Personal

Financial problems, unhealthy coping, sleep issues are just piled on. LEOs may have had an Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) that was not managed that is impacting their personal and professional life. It is stressful to have be fearful of the worst happening. It is stressful to intensely feel life fragility, as though they are always on the job. They may feel inadequate outside of police work and may face work-family conflict, have marital difficulties. It is stressful to often be absent from family functions or have many last minute plan cancellations. If the job is not stressful enough, they may even work a second job or be a single parent. Furthermore, they may be dealing with the stressful impact of negative public practices and negative media coverage. Let’s work on changing that!

What Can Police Departments Do to Lessen Stigma and Shame?

Law enforcement agencies realize that when a LEO has social networks for self-disclosure, their stress can be mitigated. Therefore, supervisors are attempting to establish an organizational culture of peer support and that it is okay to seek out psychological help and other mental health services. Police departments are adopting organizational wellness policies, are offering training on managing secondary traumatic stress, and are creating a vicarious trauma-informed workplace. Cultural taboos bring about discrimination which reduces help-seeking behaviors.

Based on a national study of U.S. law enforcement, over 90% of officers perceive stigma as negatively influencing help-seeking behavior, and when they access mental health resources and find them effective, levels of stigma are extremely high (Drew & Martin, 2021). As a rule, they are negatively impacted by perceptions of stigma when contacting support services (Acquadro Maran et al., 2022). Let’s work on changing that!

LEOs may believe that if they shared their feelings, their brothers and sisters would judge them. If they feel embarrassed by something that happened, it can feel demeaning. They may feel as if fellow officers are sneering, or supervisors are being condescending. Shame can cause them to cope in unhealthy ways. Being that shame is a deeply engrained emotion, avoidance strategies don’t work. If a law enforcement officer experiences shame and fears rejection, they may act in ways that bring about more feelings of shame. When LEOs feel shame, they may constantly worry about being rejected. What if their partner found out? Would they want to continue working with them? Let’s work on changing that!

Bottom line

The problem is most police officers won’t get help because of confidentiality. Several studies on officer stress show that they will get help if they realize that other officers experience the same symptoms and issues (Queirós et al., 2020). Sadly, most LEOs don’t get help because they’re using the same maladaptive coping methods or are enabling each other. Police department leaders and officers and other law enforcement agencies can either choose a path toward wellness and physical health or a social attitude that continues the stigma. Would you feel humiliated if anyone found out that you were seeking out mental health care? Would you be branded as weak? Let’s work on changing that!

How Family and Friends Can Support a First Responder’s Mental Health

Barbara Rubel — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 17:55:27 +0000

Synergy

When a first responder eats healthily at home and gets eight hours sleep, and works on their physical health, their job is positively impacted. By the same token, when they are satisfied with their job and feel supported in their role, their family life is positively impacted.

Whether you are a friend or family member, you can help them find synergy in their life and impact their well-being. Synergy is about a connection between work and family and the ability to communicate and collaborate about their well-being whether at work or at home.

Be a Good Listener

Where do you start if you have not learned about the impact of secondary traumatic stress, vicarious trauma or moral injury? What do you do when you don’t know what to do? Start with the basics.

Make eye contact, especially when your first responder is sharing traumatic material.
Don’t interrupt while they are speaking. Let the conversation take place as slowly as they need it to be.
Don’t overreact or jump to conclusions. Ask questions to clarify what was just said.
Don’t try to fix the problem or probe for details that you may not be able to handle. Leave that to trained peers, online peer support and mental health professionals. You don’t have to find a solution to their problem. Your role is to support them as best you can while they figure out what healthy coping strategies will work best.
Recognize how their well-being has been impacted. There is no magic formula for them to survive and thrive in their job. But there is a powerful bond that takes place when first responders share their vulnerability, anxieties, and fears with a family member or friend who gets it.

Common Problems First Responders Face

Emergency personnel may feel as though they are always on the job and are inadequate outside of their role. Chronic stressors such as disturbed sleep and insomnia take a toll. Add to the mix unhealthy coping and thoughts of suicide. When you understand the mental health challenges they are dealing with, your awareness helps them see that they are not alone, and that help is available.

Community Stressors

While they support the community and deal with trauma, they deal with negative public practices that are sometimes violent confrontations. Law enforcement officers (LEOs), in particular, are dealing with calls for defunding the police and negative media coverage.

Workplace Stressors

First responders may have a supervisor who does not recognize their value, has a poor discipline style, or frequently criticizes or second guesses them. They may be dealing with denied requests for days off, have confidentiality issues, or are being sexually harassed. Their stress levels are influenced by bureaucracy, long work hours, shiftwork, night shift, excessive overtime, and work schedules.

Dangerous situations and the possibility of being injured can weigh heavily on their heart and mind. They may be dealing with traumatic events, critical incidents, serious accidents, and exposure to suffering or failed attempts at resuscitation, which can take a toll.

Family Problems

Family problems include finances, intimacy and sex, child rearing, not spending enough time together due to shift work and long hours, household tasks and communication. They may work on the holidays or have a second job. Long hours may leave little time for family events.

They may miss their child’s sports activities and feel guilty about their lack of presence. It is hard to set a goal to be there for a spouse, children and significant others when a first responder is not even present for themself. Although they show up, something is missing.

The problems at work may match in number the problems at home and can include marital difficulties, being a single parent, being absent from family functions, and last-minute plan cancellation. They may be fearful of the worst happening to them or their family, which causes emotional distress and intensely makes them see how the fragility of life is.

Recognize the impact of work-family conﬂict, which is the pressure between work and family life and how it conﬂicts and interferes in both their personal and professional space.

Useful Coping Strategies

Consider taking a yoga class together or some other physical activity, getting a couple’s massage, praying together, or volunteering on the same committees. It is a gentle process of moving into what a first responder needs without overwhelming them. Work as a team and check in with one another.

Many studies point to the value of mindfulness and peer support programs, so suggest that they reach out to a trained peer, as well. Although you can only do so much when they have anxiety issues, post-traumatic stress, suffer from clinical depression or have thoughts of suicide, you can be the beacon that shines a light on the value of calling 988. This confidential suicide lifeline is there for anyone needing emotional support, whether that is your first responder or yourself.

Barbara Rubel Won a GHP Mental Health Award for the 2nd Year!

Barbara Rubel — Fri, 05 May 2023 19:31:44 +0000

The GHP Mental Health Awards once again showcased the best of the best in the mental health industry in 2023. Their novel award approach welcomes all companies in all shapes and sizes. They do not prioritize their winners based on demographics, and instead aim to research, analyze, and shortlist all companies in this industry based on their merits.

The final decisions have now been reached. From her recent nomination, they announced that Barbara Rubel – Vicarious Trauma Keynote Speaker – has received the following award:

Most Compassionate Trauma-Informed Care Training Specialist 2023: Barbara Rubel

GHP Awards Program

This cutting-edge awards program honors the businesses and people that work in the mental health industry for their accomplishments. One of the most significant sectors is the one related to mental health. We are all aware of how crucial mental health support is and how it genuinely improves people’s lives.

While the industry is still recovering from the challenges posed by Covid-19, the pandemic has recently taken a toll on the mental health of millions of people. Despite this, those working in the mental health sector continue to show exceptional levels of care and compassion for those who need assistance.

Times are hard for people working in the mental health business and underfunding is another issue the sector fights every day. However, the mental health industry helps everyone who requires assistance and does a fantastic job! Companies that focus on providing mental health support are exceptional, and Global Health & Pharma wish to recognize these businesses for their efforts by giving them recognition through awards.

We at Global Health & Pharma manage the GHP Mental Health Awards because we understand how important the industry is. Supporting companies working within the Mental Health sector is our main goal, as well as highlighting the important work that is being done.

GHP’s Annual Awards

The incredible work done by organizations and people has been highlighted by GHP’s annual awards, concentrating on individuals dedicated to never-ending innovation, customer service, and the expansion and advancement of their companies.

Their programs encompass a wide range of industries, enabling them to highlight the quality of a variety of businesses and the people that inspire them. They can recommend businesses attaining absolutely outstanding achievements due to their industry connections and in-house experience. They allow their readers to suggest either their own firm or one they would want to see win in order to ensure that their programs are an accurate representation of the best businesses from across the world.

At the core of these programs is integrity, and to ensure that they are an accurate depiction of these extraordinarily diverse markets, they have made sure that there are no entry barriers by making the process entirely free to enter or win.

About Global Health & Pharma

Since 2015 Global Health & Pharma (GHP) has become a hub of medical and healthcare information, accessible to industry professionals, companies, and scholars. The website, online magazine, newsletter, and social media platforms offer a wide variety of in-depth articles and news features.

GHP strives to keep their readers as up-to-date as possible by exhibiting the most recent advancements, most promising inventions, and top businesses in the medical, health, and pharmaceutical industries. This is their primary goal, and they make an effort to keep providing an unbiased perspective on what is happening for all businesses across all industries.

Through the year-round administration of award programs, GHP also seeks to identify and showcase the creative and dedicated businesses and people operating in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.

Addressing Psychological Risks of Law Enforcement Officers: Mental Health at Work

Barbara Rubel — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 22:06:49 +0000

I created a vicious trauma-approach that puts the law enforcement officer (LEO) at the center of issues related to well-being and suicide prevention. I care deeply about preventing suicide in LEOs as my father, a sergeant, died by suicide after he retired. I found meaning in his suicide by focusing on mental health, wellness and resilience in first responders.

Vicarious-trauma informed practices are policies that focus on ways to lessen burnout, compassion fatigue, empathic distress, moral injury and secondary trauma. Awareness comes down to education and training from the top down in all agencies and departments. A vicarious trauma-informed approach involves educating command staff, supervisors, LEOS and families about the impact of traumatic stress, prolonged grief and trauma.

Psychological Stress

LEOs are struggling with insomnia, depression, marital issues and the public’s disdain. Their psychological safety and wellness are paramount to their well-being. We need to take a proactive approach being that they are resigning or taking early retirement. Whether we focus on stress inoculation and go upstream or recognize that depression is a bigger issue in LEOs than PTSD, something needs to be done now to address the psychological risks they are facing every single day. Although departments are focusing on the psychological risks of their officers, there are still major issues with confidentiality and stigma. No officer wants to be labelled weak.

The stigma of seeking help

In August 2023, a survey was launched at the FOP Biennial National Conference. Drew and Martin (2023) focused on U.S. law enforcement and mental health. Based on this national study, over 90% of officers perceive stigma as negatively influencing help-seeking behavior. What the study found is that when officers access mental health services, levels of stigma are extremely high. The most common agency provided accessed service for LEOs is an online training/program for mental and physical self-care.

The second most common agency service is suicide awareness and prevention education/ program. The third most common service is peer support. Other provided services include in-person training/program for mental and physical care, EAP, formal or informal debriefings and mental health first-aid training. The least access services agencies provided were chaplaincy services. Other least used services were a substance use program, annual mental health first aid, or annual mental health or wellness check-ups. The number 1 ranking accessed external service is seeing a general practitioner. My father died by suicide only a few weeks before seeing his GP.

My mother was a policewoman. I appreciate that the study highlights that increased attention needs to focus on female officers. This is due to their high rates of psychological distress. Policewomen do access wellness services such as peer support and seeing mental health professionals and they were more likely than male police officers to find them effective.

The study recommends that departments adopt a non-punitive response to members who ask for help. Supervisors can encourage LEOs to continually gather information on managing their mental health and make wellness services an urgent priority. Almost one-quarter of officers who responded to the survey were experiencing troubling levels of psychological distress, regardless of agency size.

At high risk for mental health issues

Several studies show that LEOs have a higher-than-average risk for mental health issues that impact their work and personal life. Their well-being suffers as they become cynical, have sleep problems or lose motivation to do their job and wind up resigning or retiring early. Being that their mental health issues are impacting their wellbeing, their level of functioning is impacted. They do not want to share their feelings and they may avoid relationships. They need ways to manage their stressful experiences.

The Fraternal Order of Police survey of 8000 active and retired sworn officers (Fraternal Order of Police (FOP, n.d., Martin, 2018) found that stressful experiences bring about unresolved emotional issues in LEOs that lead to insomnia, withdrawal, agitation, recurring and unwanted memories, a change in view of their job and the future. Stressful experiences causes increased jumpiness or watchfulness, and relationship problems. Several key findings of the survey: 90% reported stigma an obstacle to get treatment; 79% reported critical stress at various points in their career; over 90% reported that the public and the profession itself are unaware of that a LEOs critical stress is a problem; and 73% reported the most helpful treatment is peer support.

Here is the study if you would like to learn more about wellbeing in law enforcement officer: Drew, J.M. & Martin, S. (2023). Mental health and wellness initiatives supporting United States law enforcement personnel: The current state-of-play, Journal of Community Safety & Well-being, 8(1), S12-22.

4 Symptoms of Burnout You Should Be Aware of

Barbara Rubel — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 17:00:51 +0000

You may not be aware that you are suffering from burnout. We have all gone through a traumatic experience dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Is it burnout? Is it grief? Or are we all just having a really bad hair day?

Now that you are getting back to your usual routine, you may still feel exhausted and overwhelmed by the simplest of tasks. You might get easily angry or frustrated. Self-awareness about your role is key to recognizing physical symptoms of burnout. It might be due to your role at work, your role at home, or both. Life is not easy. So, let’s look at how to recognize burnout symptoms and what your risk of burnout might be.

What is burnout?

According to Psychology Today, burnout is “a state of emotional, mental, and often physical exhaustion brought on by prolonged or repeated stress. Though it’s most often caused by problems at work, it can also appear in other areas of life, such as parenting, caretaking, or romantic relationships.” You might be burned out as you navigate your life in a post pandemic world.

Have you heard the term, “work-life integration”? That’s when you can combine your personal life with your work life. It becomes a balancing act that mixes up your job and home life in a way that works for you and those around you. For example, you might have a doctor’s appointment in the middle of the day. You may leave work early to go food shopping. You may go into work late due to a parent/teacher conference. Accordingly, you make up the time by working later at night at home or working through lunch the next day. You decide how to integrate work-life. It’s more than balance . . . it’s integration.

Burnout has been happening more lately as employees are working remotely from home, making it hard to draw a line between the two. Therefore, rather than drawing the line, integrate the line, so you have enough time for your personal/family life while you get your job done. As a result, your professional quality of life and job satisfaction are both increased while you mitigate burnout.

4 Symptoms or Signs of Burnout

Exhaustion

Exhaustion or fatigue is one of the foremost signals that you might be suffering from burnout, especially when coupled with one or more of the other symptoms that I have listed below. Wanting to sleep all the time is one of the symptoms of depression, but it can also be because of fibromyalgia, diabetes, chronic stress, sleep apnea or a thyroid disorder, just to name a few. However, if you are exhausted, have no energy, or find that normal tasks take longer to finish, you might be burned out.

Dissatisfaction or Apathy with Work

We all have days when we don’t really feel like working, but when that happens every day and becomes the norm, then there is a problem. Feelings of wondering what’s the point, not enjoying the work, or just a general feeling of dissatisfaction with the overall job can indicate that it might be time for a change. Rather than suffer through organizational challenges and a stressful job which has been shown to affect mental health and increase job burnout, you can focus on what is in your power to change.

Tension Headaches

We have all had a headache in our lives. They can really hurt whether they are from hormones, noise, food sensitivities, posture, or even the glare from a computer screen. However, recognize that burnout at work can cause a tension headache. If you are suffering from bad headaches on a regular basis, it could be because of chronic workplace stress due to your boss, coworkers, job tasks, or dealing with others in the workplace. For job satisfaction, you need to be a good fit for your job, have a trusted supervisor, and be accomplishing your goals. Lack of job satisfaction is a headache in and of itself.

Not Sleeping or Eating Well

Burnout can cause changes in your sleep patterns and how well you sleep. It can also cause some people to stop eating a healthy diet. If you are burned out, then you may be too exhausted to stand at the stove and cook a healthy meal. Is there a correlation between bringing home fast food and burnout? Probably!

These are the main symptoms of burnout, so if you are having an issue with one or several, you should take a close look to see if burnout is causing your issues. Talking with a therapist can also help. Our next post will help you with ways to recover from burnout.

How to Promote Recovery from Burnout

Barbara Rubel — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 16:18:52 +0000

Our previous post is on the symptoms and signs of burnout to help you recognize if you display some of those symptoms and what your risk for burnout might be. For individuals who have a high risk or are already dealing with severe burnout symptoms, here are some things you can start doing now to recover and achieve a better balance in your life.

How to Recover from Burnout

Create Boundaries

First, keep your boundaries. Don’t allow anyone to push them or violate them. Whether you work from home or in a work environment, you need boundaries in place to help with creating a healthy routine every day. There are techniques that can help with this such as setting an alarm when it is time to stop working or having a to-do list so that you can see your success as you mark things off. Chiefly, stop being as accessible during your off hours and feeling like you can’t say “No”.

Here are a few firm responses that mean “NO” and lessen burnout:

“It’s not okay when you ask me to do that for you.”
“Nope, I’m just not comfortable doing that.”
“By no means can I do that for you.”
“I can’t fit that into my schedule.”
“I just don’t have the time to do that.”
“I’m in the middle of several things and there’s just no way.”
“I don’t have any more room on my calendar.”

Show them that you care while saying no. Consider saying, “thanks, but I have a commitment on that day” or “I’m sorry, I can’t do that for you at this time.”

Address Your Mental Health

You must know the symptoms of burnout and recognize them in yourself before you can start a recovery plan. For a very long time there has been stigma in seeking out mental health help. Break the stigma. Contact a counselor or therapist. Having a trained professional to talk to who is impartial can help you get your life back on a good track. Spend time with family. Burnout is treatable, especially when you begin to cultivate more positive emotions.

Schedule Breaks Throughout the Day

Instead of working straight through the day at full throttle, schedule times to step away and relax for a few minutes. Go outside and look up at the sky. These moments of awe can make you realize that you are not alone. Quiet reflective moment can help diminish the overwhelming stress of work and allow you time to get a read on how you are doing and what is most important in your life.

Exercise Regularly

We always hear how important exercise is, but it really helps your body to eliminate built up or chronic stress and energy so that you are better able to relax and cope with challenges. Not only that, but there are also many known health benefits to sticking to an exercise regimen. No need to run the marathon. Just start by taking a walk or doing any physical activity that you enjoy.

Be Mindful

In the moment, pay attention to what is going on around you. Take a breath. Notice how you are feeling and what you are thinking. Be present instead of somewhere else in your thoughts. I am sure there are a lot of places to be in those thoughts… but instead, just stay present. Being mindful will help you cope with the stressors that are causing you to experience burnout. Deep breathing is also an important way to relax and can be done anywhere, with great effect.

Find Fun Things to Do

Find things you enjoy when you aren’t working, whether it’s a hobby, starting a new class, or volunteering. Focus on having fun. Keep your sense of humor as studies show that it increases your mental wellbeing, lowers levels of loneliness, and lessens those nasty headaches we just talked about. Whether you like stand-up comedy, slapstick, sarcastic humor, gallows humor, observational humor or self-defeating humor, just figure out what makes you laugh. It does not matter if you giggle, snort, chuckle, roar or have a good belly laugh, just enjoy the silliness.

How to Prevent Burnout Going Forward

It is possible to recover from burnout, even though you may feel completely overwhelmed. It takes some effort and planning to create healthy habits, a good daily routine, and maintain boundaries so that you can be successful both at work and in your personal life. Whether legal boundaries, relationship boundaries, emotional boundaries, or time boundaries, remember what Tony Gaskins says, “You teach people how to treat you by what you allow, what you stop, and what you reinforce.”

Being able to recognize when burnout might be creeping up on you will help you to take a step back, look at what is going on, and adjust accordingly. Stop and think. Create a flexible mindset as you focus on how much control you have over the situation and what is in your power to change. Be self-aware. Focus on strategies that you have found helpful in the past to maintain a positive attitude. With a positive mindset and improved quality of life you can alleviate some of the distress that burnout is causing, and reduce your risk of burnout in the future.

All things considered, having support systems in place whether a therapist, family member or friend, will help you get back to a place of balance. Learning to communicate and not internalize emotions is crucial. It really is all about being connected to those things in life that enrich your world and where you can make meaning. Instead of thinking that taking care of yourself is selfish, recognize that it will enable you to succeed and be fulfilled in the areas of your life that matter most. After the pandemic, you realize how fragile life is. Therefore, be mindful of what you can do right now. You are not alone. And if no one has told you yet today, you are amazing!

Characteristics of a Quiet Quitter

Barbara Rubel — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 20:27:15 +0000

Post-pandemic work environment

My focus when creating the Palette of Grief® was the physical, emotional, behavioral, spiritual, and cognitive responses from a devastating loss. The Palette of Grief® can metaphorically be applied to the current work environment because of the reactions from many employees to the losses they’ve experienced post-pandemic. They are grieving how their job has changed since before the pandemic started, and losing friends and other co-workers who retired or moved on to something else.

All these changes make them feel disconnected in their job, not knowing what lies ahead and having no clear expectations. Employees are not emotionally or physically invested in their jobs, nor are they engaged cognitively, behaviorally, or spiritually. We are cognizant that a large number of employees have grown personally or post-traumatically as a result of their experience with pandemic workplace loss.

How to recognize a Quiet Quitter

If businesses don’t help their employees recognize opportunities for growth post-pandemic, the risk of quiet quitters slowly taking over is very real. When workers no longer feel connected to the purpose of their company or to their fellow employees, they may stop being engaged at work and experience ‘Quiet Quitting’. They may be doing their job but they are also looking for another job at the same time. Some become a Loud Quitter, complaining vocally at work about being dissatisfied with their job. We hear you!

Recent Gallup polling of over 15,000 employees (Harter, 2022) shows that Quiet Quitters no longer do more than expected. They only do the minimum they can get by with and no more than their job description requires. Ask yourself if that sounds like you? Are you no longer going the extra mile to meet the needs of your clients or patients, or communicate and engage with coworkers? This is not just job burnout. This is about coping with loss and grief and navigating a workplace environment in a post-pandemic world.

What employers can do

All workers deserve to have their supervisors communicate with them, have their strengths recognized, their losses appreciated, their future objectives and aspirations known, and the stressors related to functioning in a post-pandemic environment understood. Most workers will give their best effort when they have a boss who is concerned about their well-being. My hope and desire is that supervisors and anyone responsible for workers under them will show appreciation to their employees so that no one will be quietly quitting their job.

As a keynote speaker, I am concentrating on reducing burnout by emphasizing that we are all leaders in some capacity, and we need the knowledge to confidently survive in a post-pandemic workplace. Are you or do you know someone that is a quiet quitter?

Do Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Impact First Responders?

Barbara Rubel — Fri, 15 Jul 2022 22:45:34 +0000

If you are a first responder with a high ACES’s score, does that impact you in any way? Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs) are experiences that happen to a child anytime from birth up to their 18^th birthday that can be anything from watching or experiencing abuse and violence to being in a household where members have drug or mental health issues.

The three types of ACE are:

Abuse
Neglect
Dysfunctional Household

Abuse

Emotional – When any adult that was living in the same home as the child exhibits non-physical behavior that belittles them so that they feel scared, insecure, vulnerable, ashamed, or threatened. Emotional abuse can take the form of:
- Put-downs – name calling, humiliation in front of others, holding them responsible and blaming them for everything.
- Verbal – yelling, insulting, using profanity and swearing at them.
- Creating fear – making them feel frightened, bullied, worried that they will be physically hurt.
- Gaslighting – making them question their thoughts and feelings by distorting the truth.
- Rejection – dismissing their ideas, beliefs and points of view.
- Isolating – keeping them away from friends and other family members, separating them from activities that they might enjoy.
Physical – When an adult in the household attempts to cause bodily harm, which may or may not result in actual injuries. Physical abuse can also include neglect.
Sexual – When an adult, adolescent, or other child in the household engages or attempts to engage in sexual activity or touches the child in a sexual manner that makes them feel uncomfortable. Sexual abuse also includes non-touching abuse such as pornography, exposure or nudity, trafficking or taking pictures of them in sexual poses.

Neglect

Emotional neglect – No one makes them feel loved. They don’t feel that anyone looks out for them or makes them feel important. When there was no feeling of closeness or family support.
Physical neglect – When no one in the home looks after them, keeps them safe, or provides medical care, if needed. The child does not have enough food to eat. Their clothes don’t fit or are always dirty. Parents or caretakers do not take care of them because they are always drunk, high, or absent.

Dysfunctional Household

Parent treated violently – Domestic abuse exposure when a parent or caretaker was attacked and hurt by their spouse, partner, girl/boyfriend in a violent manner by being hit, slapped, shoved, punched, threatened with a gun or knife, or had something thrown at them.
Substance misuse – When a parent or guardian in the household had a problem with or misuses prescription or illegal drugs or alcohol in excessive amounts.
Mental illness – When a parent or guardian in the home struggles with mental illness or a mental disorder, was severely depressed or was suicidal.
Divorce – When the parents are divorced, separated and no longer live together.
Incarcerated – When a parent or adult living in the home leaves because of being incarcerated, either in jail or prison, especially for a long period of time, or a sibling was incarcerated in a youth offending institution.

Professionals who have experienced childhood adversity may select their field in law enforcement, victim services or become a practitioner because of their own childhood traumas. Studies show that there is a link between childhood trauma and adult chronic diseases, heart disease, depression and suicide.

You might feel stigmatized surrounding getting help. For that reason, find a counselor who gets it – who understands the daily traumas that you witness as a first responder. You may be struggling with PTSD, depression, anxiety, alcohol use or suicide risk and have high ACES, as well. You may also be experiencing compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress or vicarious trauma. The provider you choose not only needs to have experience in evidence-based approaches, but also understand the impact of your daily traumas. You get it. You know that risky lifestyle behaviors, mental and physical health illnesses, low life expectancy and premature mortality rates are all strongly associated with ACEs.

So, what now? Consider a practitioner who understands you as a first responder. Consider finding a peer support program. Moreover, consider getting involved in stigma reduction initiatives. The toxic stress that you experienced as a child along with the toxic stress you are experiencing as a first responder might be eating away at you. Build your resilience today with other first responders. My FABULOUS framework focuses on first responder resilience. You are not in this alone!

Mental Health Thought-Leader of the Year 2022

Barbara Rubel — Thu, 19 May 2022 19:56:09 +0000

Announcing the winners of the GHP Mental Health Awards

Mental health has been one of the most neglected parts of global healthcare in recent years. The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted a behavioral shift, with mental health and wellbeing taking center stage.

Since 2019, many obstacles have been imposed on the mental well-being and health of millions of people throughout the world, and while the world navigates through new territory, the roles of organizations and individuals in the mental health sector remain vital.

About the Mental Health Rewards

As a result, Global Health & Pharma (GHP) is honored to present the Mental Health Awards once again. These awards were created to honor professionals who use their ingenuity, determination, and extraordinary levels of care to place mental health and welfare at the forefront of their practice. Barbara Rubel, a keynote speaker on vicarious trauma, has been selected an Essential Worker Mental Health Thought-Leader for 2022.

GHP aspires to honor only the best and most remarkable, and all Mental Health Awards contestants were judged completely on their own merits, as in previous years. GHP’s merit-based technique allowed for a more efficient manner of determining who deserved an award, and it has given GHP success and accolades throughout its use. The GHP research team gathered information from publicly available sources.

GHP Award Process

Getting nominated, going through the research and judging steps, and finally being acknowledged for an award is a long process. The list of winners for the Mental Health Awards 2022 is now available on the global Health & Pharma website. The goal of Global Health & Pharma Magazine is to keep readers and web users informed about the latest developments and advances in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.

The coordinator of the awards program, Harwinder Pawar, said this about the program’s success: “Hosting the Mental Health Awards program has been a highly valuable experience. I would like to congratulate the winners of the 2022 Mental Health awards and wish them all good luck for all of their future endeavors!” The Awards program continues to honor prominent innovators and technology developers from throughout the world.

Work-Life Balance

Barbara Rubel — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 13:38:09 +0000

Achieve balance between work and your personal life

How in the world do you achieve work-life balance after the world changed due to the pandemic? Your assumptive world has been shattered and professional life has changed. For that matter, so has your personal life. For many, the workplace has moved to the kitchen table. For others, the hours spent in the actual workplace have increased, limiting time spent appreciating one’s nonwork life. Metaphorically, you need to navigate the new workplace landscape, without falling into the crevice caused by the pandemic. Your sands have shifted. Move cautiously to achieve work-life balance as you climb over the sand dune or drown in quicksand.

Reflection

Some professionals know that they are drowning in quicksand when they experience stomach aches, headaches, eat too much, or abuse alcohol or drugs. How would you know if you are drowning in quicksand?

Finding the proper balance and maintaining it is easier said than done

No matter what industry you are involved with, it is extremely important to find and maintain a healthy equilibrium in your life. Of course, finding the proper balance and maintaining it is easier said than done. We all have stresses pulling on us from every direction, including stress from home, work, family, co-workers, and more. Normally, you are able to balance this tug of war without too much trouble, but during periods of high stress, things can unravel.

When Two Worlds Collide

Your world revolves around life at work. A workplace functions as roles and responsibilities spin into each other. Job content is where you have control over your job performance and autonomy, which helps you do your job well. On the other hand, job context is where the organization has the control, such as being responsible for working conditions and salary. Working arrangements are in place as well as employment relationships. The world also revolves around nonwork life, home, family, and friends. If you do not have work life balance, job performance will suffer. In the perfect world, you are engaged in work life and nonwork life with minimal conflict between your role at home and at work. However, this is often not the case. The stress of two worlds colliding can be overwhelming.

Work-life balance is:

a concept that focuses on calculating time working with what you need to accomplish in your personal life, without sacrificing the quality of your job performance.
achieved when organizations create flexible work arrangements for their employees.
a personal preference that helps you make the balancing act of work and home life more manageable.

Remote Working and Flexible Working Schedule

Remote working is where the employee works at home or another place that is not considered the usual place to do one’s job. There has been an increase in remote working. For many, their job is no longer a traditional fixed place. This detaches many employees from an organizational workplace to a remote working environment, usually one’s home. This shift is linked to a commitment to one’s job, more job satisfaction, and job‐related well‐being. Work flexibility is a family-friendly policy that offers control over working time duration and location of work. It departs from the customary time and place of the job and is not about reducing working time. Work flexibility offers time variation to work, place to work, and job share.

Reflection

If your organization offered work flexibility, how would you put it into practice?

An Experienced Life Balance Speaker

The right work life balance speaker can help provide valuable insight to those who need it most. Discover new and inventive ways to handle the everyday stresses of life. Build resiliency so that you feel motivated and excited, not overwhelmed.

Stress can be a real positive in your life if you know how to channel it correctly, and a smart life balance speaker like Barbara Rubel can provide the tools you and your staff need to prevent burnout and compassion fatigue and regain a positive and productive outlook on life.

When it comes to choosing the right work life balance speaker, you want to choose someone who has the life experiences and the proven track record of performance that Barbara Rubel does. The productivity of your workforce is too important and too fragile to risk on a speaker that doesn’t know how to connect with and motivate an audience.

You should look for a person that uses a blend of honest life experience, humor, and touching insight to connect on an honest and forthright level with those that need it most. With a signature individualized experience for all participants, Barbara Rubel is a humorous speaker that is ready to help your participants realize their true potential. Barbara customizes her programs and is the right speaker on issues related to stress management, burnout, compassion fatigue prevention and resiliency in the workplace.

Book Barbara Rubel

The Place I Learn the Most

Barbara Rubel — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 17:41:07 +0000

My “relaxing” weekend begins with my watching political reporters and talking heads arguing with one another. They sound more like columnists espousing their own views as they present bias questions to candidates. There are tensions among the electorate and strong rhetoric on both sides of the issues. I listen in hope of learning something new.

There is a lot of noise coming from the television set. I turn the channels and look for a program that is going to help me escape the political hullabaloo. I feel stressed watching the political scene and try to find a program that will be entertaining. As I flip through the channels, rejecting a series of infomercials and reruns, I decide to watch a new game show, Idiotest, but this also stresses me out, as I try to get as many questions as possible correct, and often fall short.

I watch as two pairs of competitors are tested on their observational skills and general knowledge. During several rounds, the contestants look at pictures that appear on a giant touch screen. Although these pictures cannot be simpler, most contestants fail to answer correctly. Although I am far from perfect, I continually hope that I will learn a better way to creatively find the right response. I wonder if the candidates running for President would get any of them right, as well.

It is starting to appear to me that a political interview show and this game show are more alike than different. In this case, both types of television programs show you that you need a heightened sense of logic to explore what is being said, whether political in nature or whimsical. Both programs teach you that you need to think outside the box; to keep an open mind while watching; and to consider whether it is logical and reasonable to think the way you do. Both programs help you to keep check on your thinking patterns for inaccurate perceptions of the facts. They help us to not have all or nothing thinking, where you believe that the election is either going to end terribly or those contestants will never get their one million dollar prize.

I still occasionally attempt to make sense out of what I see and hear on television although it has simply become a lot of noise. And so, I decide to shut it off. I hope that I can find meaning in the silence as that is the place I learn the most.