Throwaway due to fear of professional consequences.
After almost a decade spending every single bit of time and energy I have to help kids, I caught a really bad sex trafficking (by mom) case. These are always the worst. We had to schedule the termination of parental rights trial twice, because one parent became incarcerated. Therefore, twice, I had to take all those details out of the boxes in my head, study them, memorize them. The heinous things they did to keep them scared and quiet. How confused they were that their mom wouldn't help them. I started having flashbacks to things the children told me about, and I couldn't get the details back in the boxes.
I became completely nonfunctional, my previous PTSD symptoms came back, my anxiety completely destroyed me. I took FMLA (I am extremely lucky to have that as an option and to have accumulated enough sick time to still be paid (having over 12 weeks of sick time tells you how much I worked.)) I've been in therapy, doing EMDR, journaling, exercising, everything possible to get better.
After FMLA runs out, you can apply (where I am anyway) for a short term disability program. Now I know (per the union) that it only exists on paper, and that they never approve it. Anyway, I was denied. And it's basically impossible to get workers comp for mental health.
Instead of valuing my experience, my stellar work record, my training and mentoring and mastery of child development and trauma, and my desire to return to the field… They're “terminating for non-disciplinary reasons.”
Just a couple months back, a Big Important Person came and gave a speech about how all of us are so valuable, they “can't afford to lose a single one of us.” Guess not.