Stress

Nothing is more fulfilling in a volunteer’s experience other than successfully executing and completing a task and or a mission with the most of positive result and the prevention of the loss of human life. But as these experience and success piles up in a volunteer’s record of effectiveness, so as the stress that takes its toll in each volunteer individually. I say individually because of what I notice, it affects us in different aspects of our everyday life, whether it be during our volunteer hours or even as an individual.

Stress – I define it as a mixture of mental, emotional and physical fatigue. As I describe it on my usual talk between people I meet as a weekend warrior and as a volunteer. There are a lot of factors that contribute to stress development, be it in or outside one’s work environment or at home.

As a volunteer, I call it Compassion Fatigue, where it takes its toll from the people who help others. Though in the volunteer environment, there are usually five elements which we usually consider as factors on developing stress during volunteer work.

• Earth - The terrain situation or location of the scene.
• Water – Basically the weather condition which normally happens during rainy season.
• Fire – The most common threat to the environment, properties and human life.
• Wind – Usually comes with the weather condition which adds complexity and danger to the nature of response
• Human – This is the main deciding factor in which our effectiveness as a volunteer, as a team and as an individual depends upon.

The main factor that decides the outcome of a successful response is the mental and physical condition of the human element. As individuals, we may be skilled and well trained in our own right or in various disciplines involving public service and not just emergency medical response. But all these are nothing if the effectiveness working as a team is at question. An emphasis on more of We rather than Me.

In my years of volunteer work, I witnessed a lot of success and failure in every aspect, be it on the organization or on an individual. Take it for example in my own condition, where I am badly battered by my personal state and mental condition. Personal reasons like married life, financial problems, excessive alcoholism, depression and other personal reasons coupled with bad management of the organization, petty differences in and outside the organization and so much more that I could enumerate. It basically affects my relationship with my fellow volunteers and my effectiveness in missions and response. Never the less, little by little, I learned to put things in their proper order and on a “later on” schedule.

But that’s really nothing compared to what the nature of response or action is. Especially when the later becomes the reason of self-centeredness, then everything falls into the trash bin. Relationship as a team deteriorates and so as the way you look at people and the organization. Some have developed “swollen heads (not literally)” like they brag on everything they can brag upon. Others were just contented on what they do. These people just literally cared for themselves and their own purpose. My question is...are these the people whom the public is depending upon? What happened to the office or legacy that my old team built in that four cornered office?...I did not lose my respect to the organization but to some people who are self-centered...some were close to me before, some are just new...some just brag because they are medical course graduates...some think that just because they have participated in few responses they think they are well capable...others, because they attended or have obtained training from various agencies they thought they are superior to others...things like that isn’t the office I once been proud of before...Compassion Fatigue or stress really changes people.

Coping is about resiliency - keeping up our ability to manage stress day to day. It's about the necessary need for finding ways to escape the pressures of stress, and about needed short term rejuvenation. Healing is about preventing and alleviating the root causes of our stress for long term change. It's about figuring out what causes it and committing to either trying to change it, accept it, or leaving it. Healing is about our deepest levels of learning, growth and awareness.

Coping and Healing are both needed to help with compassion fatigue. Coping is what we do when we take a much needed coffee break after a particularly difficult exchange with a boss, or member of the public. Healing is what we do when we take the time to stop to really think about "why do I react that way with this person?"  "How can I think about this situation differently, how can I frame it, how can I perhaps respond differently so it doesn't always rile me up so horribly?" "How can I change it for the long run?" Healing is when we want to truly change the situation or our reaction to it, not merely escape the pain and tension it brings.

Though escape from tension is really important, it is not an excuse not to conduct our selves properly in public and our relationship with teammates and fellow volunteers. I answered this by leaving that organization...it was a sad decision for me but I must. But this doesn’t mean I won’t participate anymore. I’ll still be there if they needed extra hand but I have my priorities now and my responsibility lies with it.