How to Manage the Impact of Vicarious Trauma in Case Management Teams

As case managers, you are at the centre of clients’ recovery journeys following serious injury, trauma, or complex medical events. You work closely with individuals and families at their most vulnerable, navigating systems that don’t always work smoothly and coordinating multi-disciplinary teams under pressure. While this work is deeply meaningful, it can also take a toll—especially when you’re regularly exposed to clients’ traumatic stories, suffering, and high-stakes challenges.

This emotional impact is known as vicarious trauma (VT)—a quiet but powerful force that can shape how you feel about your work, your relationships, and even the world around you. And if it’s not addressed, it can quietly undermine your wellbeing, team cohesion, and long-term career sustainability.

What Is Vicarious Trauma?

Vicarious trauma is the emotional residue that builds up from empathic engagement with others’ traumatic experiences. Unlike burnout, which is typically linked to workload and exhaustion, VT affects how we think, feel, and see the world. Over time, it can disrupt your ability to feel safe, trusting, or effective in your role.

For case managers, the risk is particularly high. You might be:

• Listening to distressing accounts of injury, abuse, or loss

• Witnessing the long-term effects of trauma on clients and families

• Absorbing frustration from navigating difficult funding or legal systems

• Feeling emotionally “stuck” between clients, clinicians, and legal teams

When you're the go-between for everyone else’s needs, it's easy to lose sight of your own.

How Vicarious Trauma Shows Up in Case Management

In individuals:

• Emotional exhaustion or numbness after client contact

• Difficulty sleeping or switching off

• Avoiding certain cases or feeling dread about the next call

• Loss of empathy or compassion fatigue

• Feeling hopeless about client progress

• Increased irritability or detachment at home

In teams:

• Disconnected working or siloed behaviour

• Rising tension between professionals

• Reduced collaboration or trust

• Blame when things go wrong

• Staff turnover or withdrawal from certain roles

In the wider system:

• High staff burnout

• More complaints or errors

• Reduced capacity to support complex cases well

• An environment where people feel emotionally unsupported

Why Are Case Managers Particularly at Risk?

• You hold a lot – medically, emotionally, legally, and logistically

• You’re often solo – working remotely or independently, with little day-to-day support

• You juggle competing priorities – balancing clinical needs, funding limits, family dynamics, and solicitor expectations

• You care deeply – and that care, over time, can become heavy if not shared

This is why naming and managing vicarious trauma isn’t optional—it’s essential.

What Helps? Strategies That Make a Difference

1. Talk About It Openly

Creating a culture where case managers can say “this is hard” without shame is the first step. Supervision, peer check-ins, and reflective spaces should include room for emotional impact—not just task reviews.

2. Prioritise Reflective Supervision

Supervision should go beyond compliance. Good supervision helps you explore what's being stirred up in your work, notice early signs of VT, and think about how to stay grounded and well.

3. Build in Boundaries and Recovery Time

VT thrives when we have no space to process. Take breaks. Block time to write up notes, eat, walk, breathe. Build a schedule that allows for integration—not just output.

4. Use Peer Support Intentionally

It’s easy to go it alone—but a five-minute phone call with a trusted colleague can be more powerful than you think. Peer groups, WhatsApp check-ins, or debriefs after tough cases can make a huge difference.

5. Recognise the Emotional Labour

Case managers often carry other people’s emotions without realising it. It’s okay to feel sad, frustrated, or overwhelmed. The key is having somewhere safe to take those feelings—not burying them.

6. Supportive Leadership Matters

Whether you manage others or lead a team of associates, your response sets the tone. If you're open about emotional challenges, model rest, and make space for discussion—you give others permission to do the same.

7.  Increase Compassionate Responses

Providing compassionate responses, rather than absorbing a client’s pain through empathy alone, allows case managers to engage supportively while maintaining emotional regulation.  Compassion activates regions of the brain associated with care and reward, rather than the pain-related networks triggered by empathic distress, which reduces cortisol levels, protects against burnout, and supports long-term resilience.

A Final Word

Case managers are often the invisible glue holding complex care systems together. But you’re not invincible—and you shouldn’t have to be.

Vicarious trauma is not a sign that you’re doing something wrong. It’s a sign that you care. And caring in this line of work needs to be met with care in return.

At Healthy You, we work with case managers across the UK to support sustainable, emotionally intelligent practice. Whether through training, supervision, or peer forums, we’re here to help you stay well—while continuing to make a difference for the clients who need you most. If you’re curious about this subject, need support or just want to listen to your Peers discuss their cases and gain insight, please join us for our free Case Manager Confidential sessions – a safe space to support Case Managers. For more information contact sarahsawyer@healthyyoultd.co.uk.