Last month I promised to address each of the five “secret” factors that take child protection workers out at the knees. You can go ahead and read that here. I call them “secret” reasons because they’re either not obvious to the public or because they represent beliefs that we covertly cling to.
Saving Your Body
Let’s talk about safety. Humans are pretty crappy at judging whether or not we’re safe. Maybe its fair to say that our internal danger-meters were calibrated in a different age. Yet just for fun, let’s test our safety knowledge. Which is more dangerous to a social worker:
- An angry, yelling dad enters your office demanding to see his baby son
- Driving to a meeting across town
Now our limbic systems will say, “Angry dad! Run from angry dad!” Yet its driving during work hours that is far more dangerous to our bodies. If you look at the workplace injury stats (yes, I nerd out on random stats like that) you will find that the greatest occupational hazards come from the industrial sector. Forklift accidents. Electrocutions. Among us helping professionals it’s almost never angry clients who harm us- it’s driving to see those angry clients. The numbers are crazy actually, so this represents the first way to be safe: take it easy on the roads.
If you *actually* want to be safe as a child protection worker, here is a short list of do’s and don’ts for on the road:
- DO slow down. You might be responding to an immediate child protection concern. The fact is that if it’s that serious, the police or ambulance are already there or on their way, and they are allowed to speed. They 90 seconds you might save by driving like you’re racing the Indy 500 is not worth the potential toll on your precious life.
- Do NOT text and drive. There is not magical exception clause if you are texting a client or your supervisor.
- DO prioritize a focus on safety while driving above being “present” for your client who is in the passenger seat. If you need to, pull over to talk.
This ends the finger-wagging portion of the article. Consider Safety Tip #1 my little PSA. I have to mention car accidents because they actually kill more child protection workers than anything else. Hey, science. Now onto the stuff I know you care about.
Saving Your Heart
The second way to be safe at work? Check in with your state of being every single workday. Sorry, I know that is a cryptic statement. Let me explain. Burnout and PTSD sneak up slowly. In fact, by the time we start experiencing extreme symptoms, it’s actually too late. There is a sort of “lag time” between exposures to traumatic stimuli and our long-term response. Do you want to hear my pet theory? When we witness awful things (aka: child protection work, war, etc.) we unconsciously do things to shield our hearts and minds from the pain. Maybe we distract ourselves. Maybe we self-medicate. Perhaps we just put the demonic images out of our heads and press on. This usually works great for minor, one-off events. It’s like the brain can deal with the occasional trauma here and there. Different story if that’s how you spend half of your waking life.
Every time you “thought stop” or hastily put some traumatizing thing out of your noggin’ at work you actually incur a debt. You are choosing not to process something in the moment because you know the toll it will take. The problem? That debt must be paid at some point down the road. Maybe that night. Maybe months or even years later. The equation must find balance in your brain. This is why it’s called “trauma”. Trauma, by definition, is a form of harm that requires healing.
I have watched many social workers suffer through lingering symptoms of trauma long after quitting child protection work. The piper must be paid. Full stop. What gets really messy is when the psychological piper demands his due while you’re still working in the field, accruing more debt. He’s basically a loan shark and will not take his clutches off your neck until you’ve paid the last penny.
So how do we prevent traumatic debt from piling up in the first place? Well, that’s really the heartbeat of this blog. Read some of my other articles! But let’s focus on one thing: checking in with ourselves. I’m as crazy as a bat at this point in my career, so I am not afraid to literally speak out loud to myself. “This makes me feel deep pain because I know I can’t do anything to stop it. But I know it’s also not my fault” or something like “Sean, you’re having a tough day today, huh? Let’s go get some coffee.” I try to speak to myself as loving parent would- with both sincere compassion and a fierce determination to protect my child….except I’m that child.
Also, after seeing something disheartening, revolting, tragic, or grossly unjust during my workday (read: every day) I often allow myself to feel the pain of it in real time. If that’s sadness, I tear up. If it’s anger, I let that well up inside me and just be angry. I could put these feelings out of my mind, but I know that would do this at the expense of my future self.
Checking in and feeling what you’re feeling pays the piper.
This is all I know. Drive safe.