The teachers are not alright. As families across Canada juggle a variety of states of lockdown due to COVID-19, many teachers continue to voice concerns that government plans to keep

students and teachers safe in schools are inadequate. One fallout from the lack of support is that teachers are at risk of burnout, but the conditions for this precede the pandemic and speak

to a much wider crisis of how governments fund and manage education. ------------------------- _ READ MORE: A LARGELY FEMALE TEACHING FORCE IS STANDING UP FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION _

------------------------- Recent, and ongoing, research from Alberta sheds light on how teachers are coping and suggests broader questions exist about sustainable schooling conditions for

study. In January 2020, I was asked to investigate the scope and experiences of compassion fatigue and burnout in Alberta educational workers. Psychologist Charles Figley described

compassion fatigue in 1995. He observed that therapists experienced symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder after working with traumatized clients. His work led to a new

understanding of the heavy emotional, mental and physical cost to professionals who cared for vulnerable, hurting or grieving people. Optimally, these professionals felt compassion

satisfaction, the joy of helping other people through difficult life experiences. However, exposure to the pain and suffering of traumatized people could erode caregivers’ ability to

effectively engage in caring work, potentially leading to compassion stress or, if left untreated, compassion fatigue. Recently, the first phase of this Alberta research study was completed.

Phase one focused on the results of an online survey administered over a three-week period in June 2020, consisting of 28 closed and open-ended questions. Over 2,100 participants completed

this survey, and the resulting statistics were grim. COLLISION OF BURNOUT AND COMPASSION FATIGUE In addition to this alarming number of respondents reporting compassion fatigue, symptoms of

burnout were also evident, including physical exhaustion and sensing a lack of feeling appreciated. Eighty-nine per cent of respondents reported feeling low energy and almost 70 per cent

reported an inability to concentrate. Fortunately, depersonalization, an extreme symptom of burnout characterized by a callousness or lack of caring towards students, was not evident.

Conversely, respondents reported pushing themselves to exhaustion to meet the individual needs of their students. Alberta’s dismissal of many educational assistants and support staff early

in the pandemic devastated the respondents who either lost crucial supports, or lost their own job, and could not help vulnerable students. RIPE CONDITIONS FOR COMPASSION FATIGUE Compassion

stress and compassion fatigue are widely accepted occupational hazards in caring professions such as nursing, firefighting, social work, emergency medical response or policing. An awareness

of the signs and symptoms of these mental health problems are often part of professional training. However, only more recently has compassion fatigue been recognized as a problem for

educators. The slow erosion of resources in and for schools, and the chronic underfunding of services for vulnerable and special needs students over the past several years, has resulted in

an intensification of educators’ workloads. Rather than having other professionals and support staff to assist with the day-to-day running of schools, teachers and school administrators have

taken over the jobs that hold school communities together. As one survey participant noted: _“It’s not always about the big events or students with big trauma. It’s the day-to-day emptying

of my bucket with no one there to fill it, decreasing understanding among administrators about this as well as decreasing respect for teachers from the general public. When I actually get to

teach and help, I love it. The guilt of not being able to do it all is exhausting.”_ The pandemic may be a traumatic event for students, therefore increasing the likelihood that educators

will provide crisis and trauma support. Reports of increased domestic violence are particularly concerning. Educational caregivers, including teachers, administrators, support staff and

facility workers need to recover from their burnout or compassion fatigue to provide the guidance needed for student success. The consequences of ignoring educational caregivers’ burnout and

compassion fatigue might lead to a high turnover of professionals, an inability to attract new employees and difficulty retaining experienced professionals . ATTENDING TO THE RISKS OF

HEARTBREAK My earlier research focused on the ways that educators’ emotional labour can lead to occupational heartbreak. The next phase of this research project will focus on preventing

compassion fatigue and burnout through purposeful training and planning and with the goal of protecting and healing educational workers’ hearts. ------------------------- _ READ MORE:

HEARTBREAK BECOMES BURNOUT FOR TEACHERS WHEN WORK IS TURBULENT _ ------------------------- Healing can begin in four ways: understanding the impact of school culture, building wider

community support for educators’ work, using personal self-care strategies and accessing professional supports and resources. 1. SCHOOL CULTURE Numerous survey respondents described the

impact of school culture on their mental and emotional well-being. Empathetic colleagues, time during the work day for self-care, a supportive parental community and positive mentorship from

leaders characterized positive school cultures. Conversely, toxic workplace culture was described as having adversarial collegial relations, inconsistent messaging around work/life

boundaries, inadequate support from supervisors and a sense of helplessness regarding improving students’ learning conditions. 2. COMMUNITY SUPPORT By reducing poverty and other social

inequalities, and advocating for equitable public education, the local and provincial community can reduce the risk of children and youth experiencing crisis or trauma in the first place. In

the short term, sincere gratitude from community members to educators, who pivoted the educational system to emergency remote instruction in a matter of months, is critical to build

compassion satisfaction. 3. INDIVIDUAL SELF-CARE Self-care is one aspect of individual recovery. The survey respondents suggested several ways they dealt with stress and distress, including

exercising, using mindfulness practices, playing with their own children, walking their pets and connecting with nature. 4. PROFESSIONAL RESOURCES AND SUPPORTS People experiencing either

compassion fatigue or burnout should not be stigmatized. Instead, they should be encouraged to access professional support, such as seeing a doctor, therapist or psychiatrist, who are best

trained to guide their recovery. Benefit providers and teacher associations can provide additional resources that have been tailored to the needs of educators. Working with children and

youth is a double-edged sword that can be rewarding and build compassion satisfaction, or challenging and lead to burnout and compassion fatigue. Understanding the unique nature of work in

the educational field is an important aspect of ensuring that educators can emerge from the 2020 tunnel to flourish in 2021.