Stress Management in the Healthcare Setting
An increasing body of evidence points to the intensity of the labor involved in caring, and the impact it has on the carer. Whether lay or professional, it seems that the potential for suffering among carers is enormous. When a person reaches a state of physical, emotional or mental exhaustion, burnout occurs, and it appears to affect both lay and professional carers alike. Almberg's study, for example, suggests that exhaustion and burnout from caring happen in many different cultures and that 'relatives who have been giving care for many years may experience similar emotional exhaustion to that suffered by staff' (Almberg et al 2007). Whether lay carers would express their state as burnout is questionable, since it tends to be a term mostly used in professional discussion, but there is evidence of high levels of stress and illness among informal or lay carers (Henwood 1998). Lay carers, in one study (Princess Royal Trust 2009), felt that it was not even of interest to professional carers whether they could cope or not. Over 70% of 1300 lay carers involved in this study reported that it was largely assumed that they would cope with looking after a person at home, and were not asked if they could do so. Are they not being asked because of ignorance, because of fears of what might turn up if they were asked, because of denial ... what is not known about does not hurt? Professional carers, however, are supposed to have special training which equips them to deal with the suffering of others dispassionately, maintaining a certain distance which 'protects' both them and their patients or clients.
Thesis: If work is our centre, but it fails us, for whatever reason, then we have literally lost our faith. The centre no longer holds and we may fall apart - showing all the signs and symptoms of stress and burnout, addiction and co-dependence.