Self-Care

 
 

Secondary traumatic stress is the emotional toll that listening to and be exposed to traumatic events of youth and families takes on mental health professionals. Secondary traumatic stress can negatively impact the important work that we do. It is vital to provide education, activities, and resources to school and community mental health professionals to prevent and/or mitigate signs and symptoms of secondary traumatic stress both in themselves and in their schools and agencies. Project Fleur-de-lis has made a commitment to prioritizing secondary traumatic stress education and support by integrating them into our trainings, programs, and products.

Project Fleur-de-lis has done this in a variety of ways: (1) use our email list server to distribute helpful resources, websites and trainings; (2) utilize social media to share additional resources and connections; (3) choose annual self-care themes and distribute resources and reminders at our ongoing continuing education presentations to model and to remind school mental health professionals to take care of themselves every single day; (4) incorporating self care discussions and activities into our team meetings, our evidence-based consultation meetings and all of our trainings.

Self-Care Initiatives over the years.

Check out photos from past self-care initiatives and expand the years to learn in more detail how they were implemented.

 
 

  • PFDL newsletters were sent out bimonthly that included self-care sections.

  • The theme was integration. We had an intern help write topics with a link to resources via a google doc. This document was a shared document where community members could add their own resources and discourse around the topic.

  • ABC's of self-care. PFDL created self-care cards for each letter of the alphabet. A couple were handed out at each event of the year to all who attended. They came with little easels that attendees could keep on their desk as a reminder to practice self-care on the daily.

  • Awareness, Connection, Action was the theme of the year. Every CEU presentation, each table included a trifold with those three sections. The first section, Awareness, prompted you to complete that months assessment on self-care. The second part, Connection, included a prompt to start a discussion with your tablemates on theme with the assessment. The third part, Action, asked participants to pick one aspect of self-care they wished to focus on in the following months and then write that action on a post-it and share on the commitment board on the wall.

  • How's Your 5? Wellness campaign. Dr. Doug Walker, creator of the program, did an overview of the program for the first continuing education presentation in our speaker series. The four following presentations throughout the series will have the self care themed around one of the five domains. Each time, the attendees received a small giveaway correlated with the theme along with a card that spoke about the importance of the domain and challenged the attendees to build self-care practices into their routines and share them with us through social media.

    #PFDLHOWSYOURFIVE #SELFCARECHALLENGE

  • Monthly cards were designed based on the needs and interests of respondents to a self-care survey the previous year. Each card incorporated an inspirational quote and self-care exercises for PFDL partners to practice. Every card was uniquely designed to fit their specific topic: breath, sleep, gratitude, inspire, self-compassion, relationships, spirituality, play, and balance. Each card was laminated and hole-punched to be collected on a keychain the counselors and social workers were encouraged to keep in their office and also use with clients as needed.

  • One team member took charge in creating a monthly calendar filled with daily self-care reminders and practices as well as helpful resources. Each month of the school year focused on a topic based on past research and relevance. The nine topics included were: Assessment, Spirituality, Mindfulness, Social Connection, Relaxation/Meditation, Creative Expression, Physical Health, Job Satisfaction, and Altruism. Every calendar was filled to give attendees daily options on how to fit self-care into their routines.

  • At the kick off meeting, each attendee received a small desktop stand with a clip and a September quote card. Each month, PFDL chose a quote relevant to self care that tied in with the month’s theme and distributes to attendees. Attendees were encouraged to clip their quote on their stand which is on their desk and use it as a reminder that self care is an important and necessary part of their job.