Vicarious Trauma and Burnout

Giv­en the emo­tion­al drain and inten­sive nature of human traf­fick­ing cas­es, every­one involved should take extra care in defin­ing clear bound­aries in assist­ing vic­tims and tak­ing suf­fi­cient time to main­tain per­son­al health.

With­out prop­er sleep, exer­cise, nutri­tion, and occa­sion­al­ly time off, indi­vid­u­als work­ing human traf­fick­ing mat­ters can suf­fer a high degree of burnout. In short, in order to prop­er­ly help vic­tims, law enforce­ment and NGOs need to take care of them­selves as well. Task force mem­bers can share pro­to­cols and train­ing mate­ri­als that will help part­ners to main­tain their bound­aries and their health, while still sup­port­ing traf­fick­ing victims.