Avoiding Burn-out

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What Is Burn-out?
You recognize burn-out by the way you feel inside: tired; discouraged, flat, hopeless, maybe even numb. Your sleep may be disturbed by anxiety dreams: cars going out of control, oceans threatening to overwhelm you, houses with empty rooms that you've forgotten about, small animals needing care.

Burn-out feels a lot like depression, but it may be related to a specific area of your life rather than to everything that's going on. If you are burned-out at work, you will have trouble getting up in the morning and may find yourself making dumb mistakes on the job. If you are burned-out in your personal life, you will find yourself avoiding going home and having trouble feeling "present" when you are there.


Symptoms of CASA Burn-out
If you are burned-out on your CASA case, you may find yourself wishing you didn't have to see your kid this week, feeling irritated that you have to fill out your monthly contact sheet, or avoiding calling your case supervisor even though you could use help figuring out what to do.

CASA burn-out often carries with it a hefty dose of guilt. You made a commitment to serve. Why can't you live up to your own expectations? Is it your fault that your CASA child has not improved more since you were assigned to the case?

CASA burn-out can also trigger anger and frustration. You may be mad at "the system" for doing such an inadequate job protecting your child from foster home drift, inadequate education, or mental illness. You may be disappointed with SFCASA for not being able to help more. You may be disgusted with a social worker for not being more responsive to you or to your case.

Anger is the flip side of guilt; both reactions are ways of finding someone to blame for the difficulties you face. Both anger and guilt are very unpleasant feelings. Most of us will do almost anything to avoid them. That is part of why avoidance is one of the most common symptoms of burn-out. Even though you know you should be proactive and address the problem directly, you are only human. You are most likely to procrastinate and avoid just the things that you most need to do to address burn-out.

Why CASA Burn-out is Common
Volunteers and others working with high-risk families often feel overwhelmed and/or hopeless because the problems they face are so global and persistent. You came in with high hopes; it is difficult to keep them up in the face of hard-to-reach social workers, chaotic bureaucracy, indifferent families, and difficult children. You want to help, but you have to be realistic about the problems you face and the resources available. If the case had been easy, they wouldn't have requested a CASA!

What To Do About CASA Burn-out
The first thing to do when you feel overwhelmed and hopeless is to clarify your goals and then realistically adjust your expectations. You cannot possibly address all of the needs of an abused or neglected child at once. You need to break the problems down into specific categories (placement; medical care; educational services; enrichment activities) and then prioritize them, tackling one at a time. Once you do that, you will realize that although your case is unique, each particular element is shared by other CASA volunteers. Talk to your case supervisor, come to support groups, refresh your training through an in-service class.

Avoiding Burn-Out
Burn-out is especially likely to occur when you are putting out more than you are getting back. In your role as a CASA volunteer, that's practically in your job description. You chose to serve and you were told in advance that your child would not be grateful. Nevertheless, you need to feel that your efforts are meaningful, that they make a difference. But when things are going badly for your child, when he is cutting school or when she gets pregnant, when reunification fails, when the family rejects the IEP findings because they "label" the child, you need something to keep you going.

No matter what the topic listed for any particular support group or in-service, the goal is always to increase volunteer skills and help you avoid (or cope with) burn-out. Turn to the CASA office and your fellow volunteers for empathy and practical suggestions. And maybe, if you hang in there, the day may come when you get the slightest suggestion that your child has noticed that you make a difference in his or her life.

Maybe, like one anonymous CASA who has been on her case for three years, through foster homes and family placement and now through a restrictive treatment facility, you'll hear your child say, "Why are you doing this? You just keep showing up, like a fairy godmother or something." Maybe the child thinks she's crazy, but on another level, he also knows that she is there for him. For a child that has been through so much, that may be more than anyone else has done. And perhaps it will make a difference, in the long run.

—Libby Colman, Ph.D.