Trauma and Compassion Fatigue in Mental Health Professionals Who Help Refugees in the Middle East

The impact of working with people and helping them with difficult or traumatic experienced has long been recognized. The problems that affect helping professionals have been termed Compassion Fatigue, Secondary Traumatic Stress, Burnout, Vicarious Traumatization. Since the Iraq War and the Arab Spring, the Middle East has been in constant turmoil that results in traumatisation for the local population and to those trying to help them from local and international mental health care organisations. This article is trying to identify the sign and symptoms of compassion fatigue and the way it could be prevented and cared for in the continuous escalating trauma situation of the Middle East.