Compassion Fatigue: A Study of Psychotherapists’ Demographics in Northern Uganda

Abstract

Psychotherapists are often required to provide a high degree of care to clients which can result in physical and psychological complaints often referred to as compassion fatigue. The aim of this cross sectional study was to determine the relationships between demographic characteristics and compassion fatigue among psychotherapists. The Professional Quality of Life 5 and a Demographic Data sheet were completed by 207 psychotherapists. Data analysis was done using Pearson’s Chi Square test and Fisher’s exact test. The statistical hypotheses were tested at the significance level of p ≤ .05. The results of this study revealed that there was no sufficient evidence from the data to link gender and age to high or low level of compassion fatigue. The results further revealed that there were progression trends in which compassion fatigue decreased with increase in the psychotherapists’ years of practice. The study concluded that all psychotherapists regardless of gender and age may be similarly capable of handling the stressors that a career as a psychotherapist entails. However, the results showed that working experience may be a starting point for explaining compassion fatigue among psychotherapists.