Compassion Fatigue and Growth among CERT volunteers

Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) include volunteers who have undergone professional training to perform initial intervention in emergency and crisis situations in the locality in which they live. The CERTs roll is to manage and address the emotional and physical needs of the individual, family and community. Due to the nature of the volunteering and the high exposure to trauma victims, CERT volunteers may experience emotional stress and distress that may be expressed in Compassion Fatigue - a response that combines burnout with secondary traumatization (Figley, 1995). In the face of the response compassion fatigue, growth can also be created. The same growth of the individual from the experience that giving a new meaning to the trauma (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996).

The corona virus has had a tremendous impact on every aspect of our lives in recent times (Horesh & Brown, 2020) And the CERT volunteers also dealt with it, whether in the hat of volunteering in CERT or in their personal lives, so its contribution to the phenomena under investigation cannot be ignored.

The research is based on the theory of resource conservation (Hobfoll, 1988, 1989) as a theoretical framework. This theory holds that a person who experiences distress or loss mobilizes the resources available to him or her in his or her environment to deal with trauma and growth. The theory divides the resources into categories: personal resources, social resources and organizational resources.

The aim of the study is to examine the contribution of Background variable (traumatic events), personal resources (personal resilience), social (community resilience), organizations (caseload, proximity) and the corona timeline to fatigue and growth among CERT volunteers. When compassion fatigue is chosen to constitute a mediating variable on the assumption that the existence of this connection will be related to a person’s ability to grow and recover from the traumatic event.

The research set-up is a quantitative-statistical type of survey at one point in time (cross sectional). The data were collected through questionnaires filled out by 276 CERT volunteers in localities from all over the country. The questionnaires were distributed with the help of community social workers in the Local Authoritiesthat accompany the CERT on behalf of the authority.

The research tool consisted of a professional quality of life questionnaire to measure compassion fatigue, a growth questionnaire, a personal resilience questionnaire, a traumatic events questionnaire, a community resilience questionnaire and a demographic questionnaire with background information and questions related to trauma load and learning proximity to trauma victims. The research hypotheses were conducted on Pearson tests and T tests and then regression analyzes and mediation model analysis were performed.

The findings of the study indicated a significant relationship between compassion fatigue and growth and between organizational resources (caseload, proximity) and compassion fatigue and growth. Between Background variable (traumatic events) and personal resources (personal resilience) and compassion fatigue were found to be curvy-linear relationships. No significant linear relationships were found between these resources and growth. No significant connection was found between social resources (community resilience) and compassion fatigue and growth. Significant differences were found across the corona timeline between the study participants during 'the corona peak period' and the research participants during 'the corona decline period and the opening of the economy' regarding the level of compassion fatigue, personal and community resilience, but not growth levels. Only variables with a significant linear relationship with the investigated manifestation were included in the final study model. The discussion chapter analyzes the research findings with reference to theories, previous research and what is being done in the field.

The practical importance of the study is in identifying the causes of compassion fatigue and growth as well as in identifying groups at risk for developing compassion fatigue. By doing so, to target advanced training courses for CERT volunteers to reducing compassion fatigue on the one hand and on the other hand producing activities that strengthen growth processes from trauma and strengthen personal and community resilience.