Years of absorbing accounts of horrific events from traumatised witnesses has taken its toll on Victorian police detective Peter Romanis.
"There is no one moment, it's an accumulation of multiple things," Sergeant Romanis said.
"It's very similar to having a sponge that continues to collect water, that isn't wrung out. Eventually it can take no more."
Over more than a decade, Sergeant Romanis has spearheaded investigations into traffic, theft and sexual offences.
He currently works in the Major Collision Investigation Unit and is the lead detective on the Daylesford crash, which killed five people in November 2023.
He also worked on the 2020 Eastern Freeway tragedy that killed four Victoria Police officers.
He said it was often not the confronting images of the incidents that left a mark, but the interactions.
"It's the tightness in the stomach, it's the constant nervousness and apprehension around approaching certain things," he said.
"Irritability, not being able to switch off, being a bit cynical about the future and about the court system and the justice system and the police force itself. And that's not me."
Compassion fatigue often affects those in caregiving roles
Clinician and La Trobe University researcher Vanessa Rohlf said Sergeant Romanis was describing symptoms of compassion fatigue.
"It's really the combined effects of burnout and secondary traumatic stress," she said.
Dr Rohlf said compassion fatigue affected people in caregiving roles, such as emergency responders and health professionals.
"Many people that I see do enter the profession because it really is part of their identity," she said.
"When it's not going well, it can feel awful and it can feel like people don't know who they are.
"You'll often see people who are quite exhausted, they might feel quite disengaged with their work, detached and feel like they are just really not making a difference anymore."
Dr Rohlf said people who experienced compassion fatigue did not lack empathy.
"There are so many emotional demands on them where the demands are simply exceeding their abilities to cope," she said.
She said her research suggested roughly 20 to 50 per cent of people in at-risk professions could be at "high risk" of compassion fatigue.
"That's a lot of people … who may have very high levels of compassion fatigue, may simply be walking out of their jobs, so it's very hard to estimate," she said.
The impact of compassion fatigue is all around
Sergeant Romanis said he could see the impact of compassion fatigue all around him.
"You'll turn up to work on a Monday, and suddenly the colleague that was there with you on Friday is not there and then you don't see them again [because they've left the workplace due to stress or burnout]," he says.
"It's happened on a far-too-frequent basis."
Victoria Police said that at the end of January, 856 employees were off on WorkCover claims.
"This includes sworn police, protective services officers, protective custody officers and Victorian public service employees," a spokesperson said.
More than 80 per cent of those — 696 people — were off for mental injury, and 160 for physical injury. These numbers did not include the number of Victoria Police employees with current WorkCover claims who had returned to work.
A Police Association Victoria survey of more than 1,000 officers in October 2023 found 64 per cent of respondents indicated they had frequently thought about leaving the police force.
More than three quarters of respondents indicated they felt emotionally drained from their work.
Victoria Police has set a goal of hiring 1,500 new officers over the coming years. A spokesperson said the force had an employee assistance program in place to offer specialised and clinically appropriate services to employees, their families and veterans.
"Like many other emergency services, Victoria Police has seen an increase in the reporting of mental health injuries, especially since we implemented a mental health review of our entire workforce in 2016," a police spokesperson said.
"We have a team of internal welfare and qualified mental health professionals who provide preventative and early intervention support to our employees.
"This includes post-critical-incident support provided by qualified clinicians, peer support, chaplaincy support, resilience and trauma recovery groups and wellbeing education and training programs."
Intervening before the symptoms become a serious issue
Sergeant Romanis' encounter with compassion fatigue led him on a trip to the United States, funded by a scholarship from the Emergency Services Foundation, to speak with experts in a search for answers to help him and his colleagues.
He has since written a report on the issue and now provides knowledge and support for his colleagues back in Melbourne.
"Intervening the signs and symptoms before they get to a problematic stage, and to be able turn the ship around at that point is crucial," he said.
"The work that I'm doing is to complement all the initiatives that Victoria Police are currently taking to look after the welfare of our members."
Sergeant Romanis continues to hold a steadfast belief in the meaning of his work and says he recognises trauma is an inherent part of the job.
"That trauma doesn't have to harm that person, it doesn't have to prevent them from continuing a long and fruitful career," he says.
His 16-month-old Newfoundland dog, Barry, is his outlet and gets Sergeant Romanis outside and into the community.
"I've got the skills to wring my own sponge," he said.
