DESMOINES, Wash.; DENVER, Colo.––The last people to get help are often the caregivers. And that’s dangerous, agree psychologists Kate Prevost Myers and Caterina Spinarsis, who specialize in helping animal caregivers.
Myers, a former animal control officer in northern California and past editor of the National Animal Control Association magazine, changed careers in midlife–– partly due to “burnout.”
After developing her new career in psychology, however, Myers returned to her original field because that’s where she perceived major untreated need.
Spinarsis describes herself as “a naturalized citizen, of Greek origin, raised in Egypt, educated in England and Canada before landing in the U.S.,” who has “always been an animal lover. Growing up in Egypt was very hard,” she says, because of the abuses of dogs she witnessed. “I turned vegetarian after I read, of all things, a book by a Christian author who turned vegan. I read it during a time in my life when I experienced severe emotional abuse, and as a result, I totally identified with the animals’ plight. Further hard experiences down the road caused me to withdraw from people more and more on a personal level, and to attach to animals instead. Perhaps it was not the most balanced approach,” she laughs, “but it was the best I could muster at the time. I ended up connecting with dog and cat rescue groups here in Denver, and the rest is history.”
Both Myers and Spinarsis bring to their work professional background in handling post-traumatic stress syndrome.
Post-traumatic stress
“In my experience, covering seven years and contact with at least 5,000 people, about 75% of animal welfare workers are experiencing some degree of post-traumatic stress syndrome,” Myers says. Agrees Spinarsis, “The cumulative impact [of animal care and control work] on the empathic psyche, exposed to prolonged ‘compassion fatigue’ and horror, is real, enduring, and irreversible, unless one works hard at getting well. The saddest thing is that in the animal community post-traumatic stress does not get recognized and acknowledged. Thus, not much is done toward countering or preventing it. Yet if self-care does not improve, workers will keep dropping off like flies or becoming toxic to others and themselves.”
Confirms Myers, “Setting up ongoing mental fitness programs for animal care and control agencies should be a priority for humane organizations. Animal care and control is a high-trauma profession. People need support and encouragement. Healthy people make healthy agencies, which in turn better accomplish their mission.”
But Myers adds, “I have found resistance in the mainstream of animal welfare administration to the idea that this is a high-trauma profession, and that organizations are morally obligated to provide intervention programs. I believe this is due to the habituation effect of repetitive traumatic events,” she theorizes. “Most administrators have come up through the ranks, and are invested in their participation in the work.”
Post-traumatic stress syndrome was first recognized, diagnosed, and treated in combat veterans, rape victims, and former inmates of concentration camps. But recent research indicates it is even more common in people whose routine work is emotionally stressful. One investigator, Abigail Zuger, found that post-traumatic stress afflicts about 5% of the general population, 20% to 30% of combat veterans, and 67% of prostitutes.
“This bears out the research that I have done into high-trauma professions,” says Myers. “Most post-traumatic research has studied people who had traumatic events inflicted on them. Police, firefighters, emergency medical service providers, and animal care and control workers have in common with prostitutes an element of choice,” about risking trauma in their selection of an occupation.
But the appearance of choice may disguise a compulsion.
“The idea that people choose work that mimics their family experience is valid,” Myers notes. “Even if the work stress is bad, it’s familiar. Many people in animal work come from abusive backgrounds or addictive families. I’m sure such a history influenced my own choice of professions. I needed to protect other innocent beings, the way I wasn’t protected.”
One reflection of the role of workplace as surrogate family, Myers continues, is that, “Priorities at many shelters are decided by emotions,” even though the emotional influence on the decision-making may not be recognized.
“There is nothing wrong with using emotions as a factor in deciding where to put your resources,” Myers adds, “but solely using personal opinions and emotions can be counterproductive. Post-traumatic stress tends to narrow people’s focus, making them base their beliefs and thinking on limited input. Thinking outside the box is not easy for someone suffering from post-traumatic stress. The person’s primary concern is making the world safe for himself or herself––a reasonable reaction,” but tending to preclude flexibility.
Approaches
Neither Myers nor Spinarsis does individual therapy. Both work with whole agencies at a time. “Briefly,” says Myers, “my approach is to normalize traumatic response, provide education about what is happening, and provide intervention solutions. I do a package program called Staying Sane in Animal Welfare, which is a one-day workshop with half a day of team leader training. I also work with four agencies a year to provide a year-long program of consulting and training.”
Says Spinarsis, “I deal almost exclusively with volunteers. I also do consultation about every two months at a humane society. Last year I did a seminar on understanding vicarious traumatization of animal workers and dealing with it. We had volunteers, shelter personnel, and animal control officers .”
Learning how animal care work stresses cut across professional lines, Spinarsis is now writing a mental health care how-to for animal care workers and administrators.
“My experience has been that volunteers and to a somewhat lesser degree shelter personnel often have psychological trauma histories,” Spinarsis observes. “They are low in people skills, and often have what shrinks call ‘borderline personality disorder,’ which is more often than not related to a background of abuse, neglect, and invalidation.”
But Spinarsis also sees that many personnel, especially volunteers, bring problems such as depression and bipolar disorder to animal work; the problems don’t necessarily develop from the work.
However, Spinarsis adds, the nature of animal work tends to bring old problems back.
Although Myer says that in her experience more animal care workers acknowledge stress from dealing with the public than from having to kill animals, she sees the traditional stoic attitude toward shelter killing as a major contributing factor to many stress disorders.
“When I went through euthanasia training,” Myers remembers, “there was a woman who fainted every time an animal was killed. She also cried a lot and talked a lot. The instructor ridiculed this woman and ultimately she left the program. The rest of us took our cue from the instructor, and were tight-lipped and clinical. Except that I cried every night and had vivid dreams about dead animals. When I got into animal control, I began to harden my external responses. I no longer cried, toughed out emotional situations, and swallowed my feelings. Later I learned that such response may be why many animal care workers develop eating disorders. People mistake mental toughness for mental fitness.”
Comments Spinarsis, “Hurrying to put animals down who could otherwise be saved,” a common volunteer complaint about veteran shelter professionals, “to me is a symptom of vicarious traumatization. People,” including individual rescuers, “end up wanting the whole problem to just go away, and they know there are more animals waiting. Administering death becomes a way to stop the drain. I’ve caught myself at times thinking that way,” Spinarsis confesses, “so I’m speaking from personal experience.”
Process
Explains Myers, “The first step in counseling is accepting that a strong reaction to a distressing situation is normal. Reactions include acting out, by expressing unfocused hostility, or engaging in substance abuse and other addictive behavior, and acting in, feeling depression, isolation, and disassociation. Nightmares, an increased startle response, a feeling of hopelessness, physical illness, and suicidal thoughts can all be part of the reaction. Journaling, recording a tape, drawing, or painting,” often prescribed by counselors, “are all ways of getting it out.
“It is important to share released feelings with another person or people in a thereapeutic environment,” Myers continues. “Just talking about them with co-workers can actually make a problem worse, as the event, not the feelings, becomes the focus of attention. Very bad cases can take on mythic proportions within an agency, without resolution or healing.”
Prevention, Myers and Spinarsis agree once again, is more effective than seeking a cure.
“Physical exercise, natural beauty, talking about feelings, and having loving relationships are all major helps,” Spinarsis says.
“The major factor in maintaining mental health seems to be actively living a balanced life,” Myers emphasizes. “Grief lives in the body. It is especially important to get regular aerobic exercise. Also pay attention to what you eat. Stress depletes many essential nutrients and affects your brain chemistry. Get some nutritional counseling,” for any evident eating disorder.
“Massage, relaxation therapy, acupuncture, and other alternative therapies are important to physical healing after a traumatic event,” Myers continues.
Work for change
Myers also recommends “engaging in some activity that changes the situation or gives support for the next event,” such as “working to change laws, educating police and social service professionals about the importance of reporting animal abuse, or setting up support groups. People become animal care workers in order to make a difference. This fulfills that need.”
Spinarsis again concurs. Her own current projects include lobbying against a Colorado bill to exempt laboratories from the state Freedom of Information law, donating books and videos about factory farming and vegetarianism to schools and libraries, and opposing prairie dog exterminations.
“Learning to let go of what you can’t change quickly––like the nasty side of human nature––may be all the humane worker can do, after the dust settles,” Myers concludes. “Heal. Then get up and fight the next battle.”
––M.C.