[The burnout syndrome of the caregiver]

SLAVES TO THEIR WORK: The Anglo-Saxons were the first to evoke the "burn out syndrome" although the Canadians prefer to use "burning" in order to emphasize these situations in which the person is as it were literally "consumed by his/her work". The burn-out syndrome more specifically involves all those who have chosen to devote their lives to others. This is the case notably with health care workers because they are in direct contact with suffering, poverty, hardship, disease and death. THE ENHANCING FACTORS: There is no particular pre-morbid personality. Nevertheless, various factors can be at the origin of a burn out syndrome: subconscious motivations in the choice of the profession, capacity to adapt to hardship at work, excessive idealization of the profession, lack of recognition and the absence of any possibility of promotion. INSTALLATION IN 4 STAGES: The onset of an occupational burn out syndrome is usually insidious. Schematically, the first stage is idealistic enthusiasm. Then a helpless stagnation period follows with progressive disinterest, followed by a phase of frustration, before the onset of an apathetic disenchantment with search for a form of security. VARIOUS POINTS IN COMMON WITH DEPRESSION: A range of effects exist: sleep and digestive disorders, reduced performance, progressive feeling of exhaustion with impact on friends and relatives, irritability towards others, absence of dialogue, and a feeling of "emptiness". THREE ELEMENTS TO THERAPEUTIC POSSIBILITIES: The first consists in improving work conditions by changing the environment; the second consists in improving communications and enhancing the end to isolation and the third consists in changing the employee's private life. Such as reorganizing the person's life so that they can disconnect and develop other interest than through their work.