Caring for the Caregivers

Wildlife rehabilitators are accustomed to putting their patients first. There is always another animal to feed, another treatment to administer, or another enclosure to clean. During the busiest stretches of the year, the needs can feel endless, making it easy to keep going even when our own reserves are running low.

But supporting the health and wellbeing of wildlife also means supporting the people who care for them.

For Bob Figlock, OWCN associate director of network management, one lesson from studying compassion fatigue and mental health among wildlife care personnel was just how predictable some of those pressures can be. “The calendar is a shockingly good predictor of stress,” Bob said. High animal counts during baby season bring one kind of pressure, while the end of the season may bring sicker patients and lower survival rates. And it can be easy to lose perspective; “We can always find good reasons why this is the surge that will kill us even though it comes every year.”

Recognizing those patterns gives organizations an opportunity to prepare for them, rather than simply accepting exhaustion as an unavoidable part of the work.

Beyond the obvious

Compassion fatigue doesn’t always appear where we expect it either. In Bob’s previous work, he found that docents and public communicators sometimes reported higher levels of secondary trauma from animal suffering than those directly providing animal care. Repeatedly sharing difficult stories and accompanying visitors through their emotions, while having less agency over animal health outcomes, can take its own toll. His takeaway: “Look beyond your ICU for sadness and burnout.”

The signs within ourselves can be equally easy to overlook. Changes in sleep, eating, drinking, or other everyday habits can signal that stress is taking a toll, even when someone feels capable of continuing.

“We are terrible judges of our own levels of exhaustion,” Bob said. That makes wellness more than an individual responsibility. Organizations and leaders also have a role in creating environments where people can step back, ask for help, or simply eat lunch before continuing.

Taking care of your people

Monte Merrick, director of OWCN Member Organization Bird Ally X, has spent more than 20 years teaching, training, leading, and supporting wildlife care providers. He is upfront about one reality of the field: eventually the work will break your heart.

Early in his career, Monte watched respected mentors leave wildlife rehabilitation because they were burned out. It taught him that dedication cannot compensate indefinitely for insufficient support. “If your candles can’t light the room, you need more candles,” Monte said.

Support means appropriate staffing, safety plans and PPE, but it can also be much simpler: noticing that a colleague is having a difficult day and offering them food or water. Sometimes it is working side by side, checking in, or simply being there for one another.

“Small bits of caring can really help build a crew that has each other’s backs,” Monte said. “The ability of a crew to care about each other is critical for everything else.” For leaders, that starts with knowing their people. “We study the natural history of our wild patients so we can better understand their needs,” Monte said. “We do the same for our crew, but we call it getting to know them.”

Finding ways to keep doing the work

For Doris Duncan, executive director of OWCN Member Organization Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue, the need to care for the caregiver comes from three decades of firsthand experience. 

“You fall in love with the work, head over heels, but can hardly understand how quickly and over time it wears you down until you sometimes feel you have nothing left to give,” Doris said. She knows that feeling personally. Over the course of her career, Doris recalls periods when she continued responding late at night or caring for animals despite feeling she had little left to give. Eventually, she began practicing meditation and yoga. Eight years later, those practices remain a priority.

“I found out by talking about my experiences and sharing my healing process that I am not the only one who experiences this,” Doris said. That experience has also influenced how Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue approaches wellness. Doris manages Spring Canyon Nature Retreat, a donated property that supports wildlife rehabilitation and training, and will also play a role in the organization’s developing “One with the Wild” wellness program. Through meditation, yoga, and connection with natural habitats, the program seeks to help people find some of the restoration Doris herself found through those practices.

For Doris, investing in the people doing the work is an investment in the future of wildlife rehabilitation: “We need to care for ourselves to have a future.”

Care that sustains care

There is no single solution to the physical and emotional demands of wildlife rehabilitation. Wellness can mean recognizing those demands, preparing for periods when demands are predictably high, staffing appropriately, knowing the people beside us, and creating a culture where taking care of yourself is not perceived as a lack of dedication.

The benefit extends to our patients. Exhaustion can affect concentration, communication, and decision-making; burnout can mean losing people who have accumulated years of specialized experience.

Well-supported individuals create healthier teams, and healthier teams are better equipped to care for wildlife. The same thoughtfulness we bring to understanding the needs of their patients can extend to themselves and their colleagues. After all, sustaining excellent care for wildlife also means sustaining the people who provide it.