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Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma

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Harm reduction work is emotionally demanding. This section offers guides and frameworks for recognising, addressing, and mitigating burnout, secondary trauma, and fatigue—so you can sustain yourself and your team in the long run.

Tend Academy and the Tend Academy Resource Library

Compassion Fatigue Awareness Project

Department of Justice Office of Victims of Crime and Vicarious Trauma Toolkit

Books

The Burnout Challenge, Christina Maslach & Michael P Leiter

Help for the Helper, Babette Rothschild

Reducing Secondary Traumatic Stress, Brian C. Miller

Other sets of external resources including toolkits, practical guides, and deep-dive materials on topics like de-escalation, mental health support, participant accountability, overdose response, and more:

Featured Hacks

These featured hacks highlight creative, practical solutions from harm reduction leaders on the ground. From DIY tools to clever workarounds, each one reflects the ingenuity, care, and real-world experience that keeps this movement alive. 

Hacks for Empathetic Active Listening

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Once you have grounded yourself during an escalated situation, next engage in active listening with the person who is agitated. This can seem counterintuitive or difficult when you are dealing with somebody who is, for example, screaming at you, and it may feel like you’re rewarding them for being completely irrational. But it is key to getting them more centered and grounded so they’re less agitated and less likely to become a danger to themselves or others.
Read this Hack

Resilience Building

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Because so many of us are so similar to the folks we serve, including the trauma we carry with us, and because it is now recognized that extreme stress impacts people who care for people experiencing that trauma nearly as much as the people directly impacted by that trauma, it is essential that people in […]
Read this Hack