Empathy and emotional response are essential skills for social workers so that they can effectively help their clients, but working with these skills also comes at a price. Emotional strain puts social workers in a position where they are often exposed to the dangers of compassion fatigue. This often leads to detriment of social workers, clients or social work itself, as it has been shown (Harr, 2013; Figley, 2002; Peters, 2018) to affect communication, focus and concentration, or even lead to mental health problems. In this paper I want to highlight what compassion fatigue is in general, what are the causes, how do we recognize it and what are its consequences. Afterwards I present concrete strategies for coping with it. At the beginning I present the theory and already known results of research in the collected literature (Diaconescu, 2015; Harr in Moore, 2011; Adams idr., 2006; Peters, 2018; Al Barmawi idr., 2019; Harr, 2013; Cuaerto in Campos-Vidal, 2019; Skovholt in Trotter-Mathison, 2014) on the manifestation of compassion fatigue and coping mechanisms for it, which are later linked to the results of my own qualitative research. The main contribution is the formulation od concrete strategies for dealing with compassion fatigue, which can be provided by the work organizations (for example good and experienced management, regular supervision, team building, good working environment, care for professional growth and attention to employees' feelings), social workers themselves (eg physical activity, self-affirmation, supportive social network, setting boundaries, spirituality) and education for the social workers (eg recognizing personal history, more concreteness, learning self-respect, personal testimonies ...).
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