Self-Care for Library Staff: Understanding and Addressing Stress, Burnout, Vicarious Trauma, and Mental Health Challenges

Register for this Course

February 13 - March 11, 2024 | Four-week course

Time Commitment: 2.5 hours per week

Library staff in all settings are finding themselves facing more stressors than ever in their jobs, particularly following the economic and societal fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to managing these issues in their own lives, library personnel must have the capacity to support their communities as well.

This course will provide library staff with a better understanding of self-care, why it is so critical to their personal and vocational well-being, and tools to begin or improve their self-care journey. Participants will also learn about the risks of burnout and vicarious trauma, as well as strategies to create a personalized self-care plan to address potential mental health challenges related to or worsened by workplace stressors, such as depression and anxiety.

Course Description: The instructor will provide weekly resources, best practices, and guided activities to lead attendees in identifying wellness goals and setting them with measurable objectives. Additionally, this four-week course will include two interactive online sessions:

• Thursday, 2/15/24 @ 10-11AM PT
• Thursday, 2/22/24 @ 10-11AM PT

Please make every effort to ensure that you can attend these two meetings before enrolling in the course. If this is not possible, archived recordings will be made available.

By the end of this course participants will:

• Define self-care and why it is important.
• Identify the physical and emotional impacts of chronic stress.
• Recognize and address the signs of burnout.
• Increase awareness of the risk of vicarious trauma and strategies to mitigate impact.
• Cultivate an understanding of boundaries and strategies to maintain healthy boundaries with others.
• Develop self-care strategies to practice both at home and at work.
• Create a personalized self-care plan.
• Differentiate mental health challenges from burnout and vicarious trauma.
• Learn how to find mental health treatment if needed.

Course Outline: When you log in to the Infopeople online learning site, you will see weekly modules with these topics:

• Week 1: Learning about the impact of stress and the importance of self-care for well-being.
  • Define self-care and why it is important.
  • Identify the physical and emotional impacts of chronic stress.
• Week 2:  Understanding the risks and signs of burnout and vicarious trauma for librarians.
  • Recognize and address the signs of burnout.
  • Increase awareness of the risk of vicarious trauma and strategies to mitigate impact.
• Week 3:  Developing healthy boundaries and creating a self-care plan.
  • Identify self-care strategies to practice both at home and at work.
  • Conceptualize the importance of boundaries and how to maintain healthy boundaries both in one’s personal life and within the library/work setting.
  • Create a personalized self-care plan.
• Week 4:   Recognizing the signs of mental health concerns beyond burnout and vicarious trauma, and how to find mental health treatment when needed.
  • Recognize signs of mental health concerns.
  • Learn how to find professional help if needed.

Presenter

Dawn Behrend is an Instruction and Outreach Librarian at Lenoir-Rhyne University. She holds a B.A. in Psychology, M.A. in Clinical Psychology, Master of Business Administration, and Master of Library Science. Dawn has worked for over 20 years as a Licensed Psychological Associate in addition to her career as an academic librarian, and continues to work part-time in private practice. She is the author of the chapter, “Distinguishing Depression from Burnout: Implications for Impactful Interventions for Long-Term Improvement”, in Academic Librarian Burnout: Causes and Responses. Ms. Behrend provides workshops, courses, and invited talks on issues related to mental health and neurodiversity in libraries and self-care for librarians. Ms. Behrend is currently serving as the President of the North Carolina Library Association. She is also active with the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) for which she has served on a number of committees. She currently holds the elected positions of Vice Chair of ACRL’s College Library Section and Member-at-Large of the Education and Behavioral Sciences Section.

CALL Training Partner for this Event: Infopeople