Roy Brasil was doing a favor when he agreed to hear a pitch about testing a burnout prevention strategy on his staff of juvenile probation officers.
" 'It's a Ph.D. candidate out of Berkeley again,' " Brasil said he thought at the time.
But it didn't take long for San Mateo County's deputy chief probation officer to realize that Eve Ekman, a social welfare researcher at UC Berkeley, was offering something unique and valuable. She proposed a pilot project to cultivate empathy between the staff and the young inmates,Plastic moulds as well as among the officers.
"I realized this had a lot of potential to help our correctional staff," Brasil said.
Ekman is among a vanguard of researchers taking decades of studies on job burnout in a new direction.
Instead of looking only at external factors causing burnout, such as heavy workloads, inadequate resources and difficult work relationships, they're focusing how workers can develop empathy to spark and sustain enthusiasm for their work. In doing so, they increase their effectiveness, even in daunting work conditions.
Emotional exhaustion, lack of meaning and sense of effectiveness on the job can occur when a worker feels overwhelmed with demands that he or she can't meet. If the strain worsens, workers may shut down emotionally to cope, viewing clients impersonally -- a state called "depersonalization." That in turn cuts off a flow of critical information between caregiver and client.
In a doctor's office, the patient senses the doctor's distance and doesn't disclose important details. The physician doesn't probe for reasons behind a condition and might miss cues showing that a woman is suffering from domestic violence,third party merchant account for example, or that mold might be triggering asthma attacks, Ekman said.
"That depersonalization shuts off so many ways that information can be passed through," she said.
Communication flowing both ways, Ekman said, strengthens bonds and a sense of meaning and effectiveness on the job, the chief antidote for burnout.
In the criminal justice system, job burnout can lead to a more punitive approach with inmates,China ceramic tile escalating conflicts, according to a 2010 study. Prison guards frequently report taking "mental health" days to deal with stress. Heavy caseloads, workplace conflicts and injuries, and low pay led to stress, burnout and high turnover among parole and probation officers, according to 2005 study funded by the National Institute of Justice. But Ekman and other researchers noticed that some people worked contentedly in the same environments that burned out others.
"People can be in the exact same setting and have different reactions," Ekman said. "That's why it's so important to look at internal factors, and that's not historically been done for this kind of work."
Cultivating empathy -- the ability to understand the experience of another -- is key to heading off burnout, and that takes simple cognitive shifts, Ekman explained. A critical step is developing curiosity toward a patient, inmate or client, she said.
Realizing what a person has endured often stokes empathetic feelings, she said.
At San Francisco General Hospital, where Ekman is a crisis counselor, staffers irritated by the arrival of yet another victim of gang violence kept his mother from seeing him. But Ekman learned the seriously injured young man was a merchant mariner home to visit his ailing father when he was caught in a drive-by shooting.
"I took the charge nurse aside, told her the story, and she immediately escorted his mother and brother to his room," Ekman said.
At the same time, care providers need to keep in mind that the patient's suffering isn't their burden,oil paintings for sale she said.
"It sounds callous but they need to remind themselves pretty frequently 'this suffering is not my own,'" she said. That keeps the caregiver from getting overly enmeshed emotionally, but the recipient still knows she or he has the worker's attention and understanding.
"It's about cultivating curiosity," said Dr. Jodi Halpern, a UC Berkeley psychiatrist and professor who has assisted Ekman with the project. "But the biggest mistake is feeling like you're in the same boat."
Ekman's project in San Mateo County's juvenile probation services began in August and ends this spring. It's too early to assess results, Brasil said, but he's hopeful it will help improve the lives of his staff and,RUBBER SHEET by extension, the incarcerated youths. His department runs well now, he said, "but there's always room for improvement, right?"
Ekman's project may also reveal where management or allocation of resources contributes to work stress, he acknowledged.
"Make an officer's 10-hour shift as positive as possible, because if they have that then they're going to be making it a lot more positive for the youth they interact with," Brasil said.
" 'It's a Ph.D. candidate out of Berkeley again,' " Brasil said he thought at the time.
But it didn't take long for San Mateo County's deputy chief probation officer to realize that Eve Ekman, a social welfare researcher at UC Berkeley, was offering something unique and valuable. She proposed a pilot project to cultivate empathy between the staff and the young inmates,Plastic moulds as well as among the officers.
"I realized this had a lot of potential to help our correctional staff," Brasil said.
Ekman is among a vanguard of researchers taking decades of studies on job burnout in a new direction.
Instead of looking only at external factors causing burnout, such as heavy workloads, inadequate resources and difficult work relationships, they're focusing how workers can develop empathy to spark and sustain enthusiasm for their work. In doing so, they increase their effectiveness, even in daunting work conditions.
Emotional exhaustion, lack of meaning and sense of effectiveness on the job can occur when a worker feels overwhelmed with demands that he or she can't meet. If the strain worsens, workers may shut down emotionally to cope, viewing clients impersonally -- a state called "depersonalization." That in turn cuts off a flow of critical information between caregiver and client.
In a doctor's office, the patient senses the doctor's distance and doesn't disclose important details. The physician doesn't probe for reasons behind a condition and might miss cues showing that a woman is suffering from domestic violence,third party merchant account for example, or that mold might be triggering asthma attacks, Ekman said.
"That depersonalization shuts off so many ways that information can be passed through," she said.
Communication flowing both ways, Ekman said, strengthens bonds and a sense of meaning and effectiveness on the job, the chief antidote for burnout.
In the criminal justice system, job burnout can lead to a more punitive approach with inmates,China ceramic tile escalating conflicts, according to a 2010 study. Prison guards frequently report taking "mental health" days to deal with stress. Heavy caseloads, workplace conflicts and injuries, and low pay led to stress, burnout and high turnover among parole and probation officers, according to 2005 study funded by the National Institute of Justice. But Ekman and other researchers noticed that some people worked contentedly in the same environments that burned out others.
"People can be in the exact same setting and have different reactions," Ekman said. "That's why it's so important to look at internal factors, and that's not historically been done for this kind of work."
Cultivating empathy -- the ability to understand the experience of another -- is key to heading off burnout, and that takes simple cognitive shifts, Ekman explained. A critical step is developing curiosity toward a patient, inmate or client, she said.
Realizing what a person has endured often stokes empathetic feelings, she said.
At San Francisco General Hospital, where Ekman is a crisis counselor, staffers irritated by the arrival of yet another victim of gang violence kept his mother from seeing him. But Ekman learned the seriously injured young man was a merchant mariner home to visit his ailing father when he was caught in a drive-by shooting.
"I took the charge nurse aside, told her the story, and she immediately escorted his mother and brother to his room," Ekman said.
At the same time, care providers need to keep in mind that the patient's suffering isn't their burden,oil paintings for sale she said.
"It sounds callous but they need to remind themselves pretty frequently 'this suffering is not my own,'" she said. That keeps the caregiver from getting overly enmeshed emotionally, but the recipient still knows she or he has the worker's attention and understanding.
"It's about cultivating curiosity," said Dr. Jodi Halpern, a UC Berkeley psychiatrist and professor who has assisted Ekman with the project. "But the biggest mistake is feeling like you're in the same boat."
Ekman's project in San Mateo County's juvenile probation services began in August and ends this spring. It's too early to assess results, Brasil said, but he's hopeful it will help improve the lives of his staff and,RUBBER SHEET by extension, the incarcerated youths. His department runs well now, he said, "but there's always room for improvement, right?"
Ekman's project may also reveal where management or allocation of resources contributes to work stress, he acknowledged.
"Make an officer's 10-hour shift as positive as possible, because if they have that then they're going to be making it a lot more positive for the youth they interact with," Brasil said.
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