Abstract: There has been increased awareness in recent years of the impact that working on difficult cases (e.g., assessing and managing general violence, sexual violence, self-directed violence, trauma), or with difficult clients, has on professionals in forensic contexts (e.g., Fansher et al., 2020; Pirelli et al., 2020). Studies of judges, lawyers, psychologists, social workers, and child protective service workers have found some endorsement of indicators of compassion fatigue (CF), vicarious trauma (VT), or burnout (BO) ranging as high as 92% (Bride et al., 2007; Jaffe et al., 2003; Maguire & Byrne, 2017) of respondents. Arguably, the stressors faced by these professionals have only increased during the current global pandemic. To manage and hopefully prevent the problem of CF, VT, and BO in forensic contexts, both the professional and the workplace share some responsibilities in identifying and responding to warning signs. This presentation will: (1) identify the nature and scope of the problem of CF, VT, and BO within forensic contexts and among both trainees and professionals; (2) discuss promising self-care practices for mitigating and managing warning signs for CF, VT, and BO; and (3) highlight the possible roles that each party (i.e., the service provider or professional and the workplace) may play in effectively preventing or responding to CF, VT, and BO by supporting self-care.
Bio: Dr. Layden obtained BA, MA, and PhD degrees in psychology at Simon Fraser University. She also completed a post-doctoral fellowship in forensic psychology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Her expertise involves the assessment and management of violence, self-directed violence, and personality disorders. She currently works as a Threat Assessment Specialist at Protect International and provides psychological services under contract to the British Columbia Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission. She has co-authored more than 50 articles and conference presentations and served as an ad hoc reviewer for more than 15 journals. She has provided scores of training workshops for mental health, law enforcement, corrections, security, victim services, human resources, and higher education professionals, including as a certified HCR-20V3 trainer. She serves as an executive committee member (Member-at-Large) of the International Association of Forensic Mental Health Services, and is the associate editor of Intelligence, an e-newsletter that keeps professionals up to date about recent advances in threat assessment around the globe. She has been qualified to give expert testimony regarding risk assessment in district courts of Massachusetts in the United States. She has received various distinctions throughout her training, including several national scholarships for her research abilities and the Outstanding Psychology Student Award from Division 18, the Criminal Justice Section of American Psychological Association, in recognition of her research and clinical work with forensic populations during her academic training.