MICA: Improving the mental health and well-being of foster carers by reducing compassion fatigue: an assessment of feasibility.

为经常遭受虐待/忽视、创伤和损失的弱势儿童提供寄养服务是一项要求很高、压力很大的工作。它要求寄养照顾者具有强大的心理健康和福祉，因为他们照顾的儿童对他们提出了复杂的要求。寄养照顾者由于其角色的要求，有可能经历同情疲劳（情感和身体倦怠和/或继发性创伤压力）。寄养儿童的家也是他们的工作场所，因此很少有机会休息和重新充电，这不仅影响他们的心理健康和福祉，而且也影响了向他们照顾的弱势儿童提供护理的质量和一致性。一个多阶段的干预措施，以减少倦怠和二次创伤的症状，并增加同情心的满足感，在寄养照顾者已经提出了合作的国家协会的治疗性育儿（NATP）。这将联合收割机的NATP目前的三个离散的干预措施- 1）关于同情疲劳的迹象，症状和管理的教育，2）同伴支持和3）访问在线支持材料，到一个有凝聚力的多阶段干预。拟议研究的目的是：a）建立一个合理的逻辑模型，B）评估对出现同情疲劳症状的寄养照顾者试行干预的可行性，以改善他们的心理健康和福祉，使他们能够为他们照顾的弱势儿童提供一个更稳定、更同情和更一致的照顾环境。及c）编制一份手册及网上辅助材料，评估可行性的工作将集中于六个主要范畴：实用性、适应性、需求/用途、可接受性、实施及整合。

Providing foster care for vulnerable children, who have often experienced abuse/neglect, trauma and loss, is demanding and stressful work. It requires foster carers to be have robust mental health and well-being due to the complex demands placed on them by the children in their care. Foster carers are at risk of experiencing compassion fatigue (emotional and physical burnout and/ or secondary traumatic stress) due to the demands of their role. The foster carer's home is also their place of work, so there is little opportunity to have a break to rest and re-charge.This not only affects their mental health and well-being, but also impacts upon the quality and consistency of care provided to the vulnerable children they look after. A multi-stage intervention to reduce symptoms of burnout and secondary trauma and increase feelings of compassion satisfaction in foster carers has been proposed in collaboration the National Association of Therapeutic Parenting (NATP). This will combine three of the NATP's current discrete interventions - 1)education about the signs, symptoms and management of compassion fatigue, 2) peer support and 3) access to online support materials, into one cohesive multi-stage intervention. The proposed study has been designed to: a) develop a sound logic model, b) assess the feasibility of trialling the intervention to foster carers experiencing symptoms of compassion fatigue, in order to improve their mental health and well-being and enable them to provide a more stable, empathic and consistent care environment for the vulnerable children they look after. and c) develop a manual and online support materials.The assessment of feasibility will focus on six key areas: practicality, adaptability, demand/ use, acceptability, implementation and integration.