“It Was the Whole Enchilada”: Peer Mentors’ Experiences of Compassion Fatigue and Compassion Fatigue Resilience Within Spinal Cord Injury Community Service Organizations

Abstract

This study aimed to understand the experiences of compassion fatigue and compassion fatigue resilience among peer mentors within Canadian spinal cord injury (SCI) community service organizations. Eight experienced peer mentors completed two online daily diary reflections and participated in one semistructured interview. Using abductive thematic analysis, constructs within the compassion fatigue resilience model and self-compassion theory guided our interpretation of the peer mentors’ experiences. We found consequences associated with compassion fatigue and compassion fatigue resilience, and describe the internal and external factors contributing to each. Peer mentors whose experiences aligned with compassion fatigue felt physically, psychologically, and emotionally exhausted. These feelings appeared to have a negative influence on the peer mentors’ perception of their effectiveness, affecting their ability to help their mentees or even leading them to avoid their mentees altogether. Factors such as shared lived experience, exposure to mentee suffering/stress, traumatic memories, lack of self-compassion, and other mentorship/life demands contributed to peer mentors’ compassion fatigue. Conversely, factors such as self-care, self-compassion, detachment from mentee suffering/stress, satisfaction from mentoring, and social support promoted resilience to compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue (resilience) was experienced by peer mentors as being a complex and multifaceted process including both internal and external factors. These findings highlight warning signs of compassion fatigue among peer mentors and identify the factors—and their interrelationships—that could build resilience to combat this fatigue. Organizations can use the information to tailor self-compassion programs for SCI peer mentorship.