to think that our dog sitter should not have told me about child abuse?

[bratnav]

We have a fantastic dog sitter for when we are away on holiday, we came back from camping and were having a general conversation and she mentioned that she had worked as a carer in a childrens home. We chatted about some of the poor children she had looked after, and then she explained before I could stop her about a baby that had been sexually abused.

I now constantly feel sick and can't stop thinking about it, I managed to ask her to stop before she got to more details, but I really think that considering we have small DDs she might have thought that we didn't want to know about such things.

Its really hard for people who work in situations where they learn about child abuse. Ie. social workers, child councellors, care workers, police officers. They are seen as big and powerful figures, and they are often unable to emotionally ofload due to rules on confidentality.

I worked as an exam invigilator with a woman who was a police officer on a sabatical. She had worked in child protection to stop internet porn. She become severely depressed that she could not stop children in Thailand being raped and ended up in a mental hospital. She had wanted to leave the police service, but the police service allowed her 6 months off to re consider.

Emotional burn out is very common in social services, police or anywhere else where someone is subjected to seeing hideous things.

I think that your dog sitter needs councelling from someone who is trained. I am not sure where she best find such a person. Social services who employed her might be able to advise where she can get help without breaking confidentality.

SOme people have no buffer switch between brain and mouth, so whatever they are thinking just slobbers straight out and they never *notice8 that others are backing away or cringing. Mind you, a person who dog sits is probably used to just wittering away to the dogs and forgets that other people actually understand more than dogs to.