January 2021

Page A8 JANUARY 2021 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS Se c t i on A Bob Bukala retires as CEO of Foundation Partners Group By Linda Findlay Aftercare is secondary traumatic stress absorbed by repeat exposure to indirect trauma. When professionals are unable to refuel and recharge their internal battery, the emotional residue of secondary trau- matic stress erodes your own mental, emotional, and physi- cal health, making it important for professionals in caregiv- ing fields to take steps to guard against it. Symptoms of Compassion Fatigue • Mental exhaustion • Physical exhaustion • Emotional exhaustion & irritability • Difficulty concentrating & clinical errors • Lapse in judgement with client boundaries • Lose respect toward clients • Contribute to toxic work environment • Dreading work What to Know Vicarious trauma is the cumulative effect of working with survivors. • It is characterized by deep emotional and physical ex- haustion. • Symptoms resemble depression and PTSD. • It can strike the most caring professionals. In addition to the vicarious trauma that you may be expe- riencing on the job, there are many other influences. It is a good idea to check your trauma input : • Does your day begin with the morning news? How many disturbing images, difficult stories, actual images of dead or maimed people you come across? • At work, how many difficult stories do you hear outside your own client work? • After work, do you listen to the news on the way home or watch it on TV at night? • If you have a spouse who is also in the helping field, do you talk shop? It’s important to recognize the amount of trauma information that we unconsciously absorb dur- ing the course of a day. After a long difficult year, it is more important than ever to take care of you! About 25 years ago, I attended a workshop on Com- passion Fatigue. The term was unfamiliar to me when I attended that workshop. Through the years I have had the opportunity to talk to funeral directors about com- passion fatigue and have been continually surprised that most funeral directors are not familiar with compassion fatigue and how it can be a real threat to their ability to continue working with grieving families. I had a funeral director who I worked with who shared with me that he was completely burnt out and did not understand how or why he felt that way. He told me that he wanted to shut down his funeral home and just give up. He was a third-generation funeral director. I shared information with him about compassion fatigue and I suggested a workshop for him to attend. He attended that workshop. What an amazing difference that workshop made for him. He did not shut down his funeral home. He went on to thrive in his profession and knew how to take care of himself so that he would not get back to that breaking point! He went on to ensure that his employees would all have access to training and education that cov- ers the subject of compassion fatigue. You may want to consider the same for your staff as well as yourself. Compassion Fatigue is usually associated with a helping and caring profession, such as nurses, doctors and mental health providers. Any front line or first responder work- er can be susceptible to compassion fatigue. But, what about the funeral director? The funeral director profes- sion is one of the oldest “caring” professions in the world. They are our last responders! Not too much is said about compassion fatigue in the funeral industry circuit. For this month, being the first month of a new year that we all hope will be much better than our last-what better way to start it out by taking care of you. Being aware of what compassion fatigue is and how it can affect you can be a good place to start. Compassion fatigue is a disorder that develops from doing your best work. Also known as vicarious trauma , it Linda Findlay is the founder of Mourning Discoveries, Grief Support Services. She is a 29-year career Aftercare Coordinator, a published author, and an advocate for bereaved families. She is the founder and co-creator of The Grief Cruises and manag- ing partner with The International Grief Institute. Linda can be reached at 315-725-6132 or Lf6643@yahoo.com. Visit www.mourningdiscoveries.com, www.thegriefcruises.com or www.internationalgriefinstitute.com. FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS www.nomispublications.com Monthly Columns online at Resilience is the ability to resist, recover from, or adapt to difficulties. Building and strengthening resilience through strategies that support the brain, body and emo- tions can help prevent or mitigate compassion fatigue. When faced with a challenge, there are three possible outcomes: 1. Full recovery and ability to function. 2. Partial recovery and stunted ability to function. 3. No recovery and halted function (burnout). To build resilience, foster emotional recovery and a return to full function before the secondary traumatic stress affects our well-being is the goal. How do you strengthen resilience? • Step 1: Learn to understand stress and how it affects you. • Step 2: Take good care of yourself. We can’t always pre- dict stress and the outcome, but we are in control of how we care of ourselves mentally, physically, emo- tionally, and spiritually. • Step 3: Use evidence-based therapies that trigger the brain to release positive hormones to offset stress hor- mones. Next month I will share 10 strategies and tips that can help. One of the critical ways to mitigate compassion fatigue is to take care of yourself. You can be attentive and sympathetic without inject- ing yourself into your client’s or patient’s story. To under- stand it, it isn’t necessary to picture it. I have shared information about compassion fatigue for many years. Here is what I have found: The funeral di- rectors who were most unaware and or who claimed they are fine and who thought they were fully able to go on to the next family, are the ones who, if they listen and learn about compassion fatigue come back to me and tell me they were wrong! Could that be you? Compassion Fatigue Start out the new year taking care of you! Bob Bukala ORLANDO,FL— Foundation Partners Group has an- nounced that Bob Bukala, chief executive officer, retired effectiveDecember 31, 2020. Bukala will remain vice chair- man of the company’s board of directors, while Kent Rob- ertson, named president of Foundation Partners Group in September, will continue to lead the company. Bukala joined Founda- tion Partners in 2012 and was named CEO in 2016. Under his leadership the company has grown from 250 team members serving 5,000 families in 38 loca- tions to 1,200 team mem- bers serving nearly 65,000 families in 150 funeral homes and cemeteries in 20 states. “I am proud of what we have achieved,” Bukala said. “Most importantly, I cherish the opportunity I’ve had to work alongside a caring group of funeral service profes- sionals who are so dedicated to delivering the highest qual- ity care to families around the country. Given the depth and breadth of the leadership team we now have in place, I feel confident that the company is well-positioned for the next stage of strategic growth and innovation.” Commenting on Bukala’s retirement, Robertson said, “We are thankful for Bob’s vision and commitment to building Foundation Partners Group over the last eight years. We are indebted to him for his years of leadership and look forward to his continued contributions as a member of our board.” For more information on Foundation Partners’ execu- tive team members, visit www.foundationpartners.com/ discover-fpg/leadership/. Send Us Your News! PO Box 5159, Youngstown, OH 44514 Fax 1-800-321-9040 Email info@nomispublications.com FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS Scan QR for our website 1-888-792-9315 • mymortuarycooler.com Mortuary Coolers starting at $4,299 Beat the price increase increase coming March 2021