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Supporting Prosecutors and Advocates: Practical Wellness Tools

This page is part of of APA's Prosecutorial Wellness Toolkit

Prosecutors and advocates working with people impacted by crime often face intense and sustained emotional demands, placing them at high risk for burnout, secondary trauma, and stress. The cumulative toll of high caseloads and repeated exposure to traumatic events can impact staff retention, case outcomes, morale, and overall wellbeing. Leadership that recognizes these challenges and actively promotes employee wellness policies and practices can foster a healthier and more resilient workplace.

Benefits may include increased staff retention, better case outcomes, and higher morale. What feels supportive or restorative can vary across individuals and teams. Leadership can best understand staff needs and concerns through surveys in order to tailor activities to create a more supportive and mentally healthy workplace.

The following are examples of practices that can be implemented.

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Guide

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Mindfulness & Decompression

Host a health/wellness fair at the office

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Schedule office therapy dog visits

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Explore breathing activities

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Create quiet/calm room in office for decompression

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Begin staff meetings with short wellness activities

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Incorporate vicarious trauma training for staff to recognize and normalize discussions about it

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Explore options for work from home days

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Include plans for self-care in strategy & acknowledge the impact (reviewing videos, sensitive interviews, etc.)

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Debrief after a case. Review what went well, what could change in the future, what they felt good about, what felt different

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Introduce "focus" games that allow the mind to relax

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Leadership & Office Culture

Encourage cross-role collaboration (e.g legal & admin staff as a team)

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Begin staff meetings with short wellness activities

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Start/end a staff meeting with sharing one good thing

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Where/when possible, meet in person

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Promote conversations by leadership about office culture

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Train supervisors on how to spot burnout/work

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Explore opportunities with office leadership to develop a wellness committee to implement ideas and engage staff

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Explore policies with HR to incorporate proactive/preventative sick days as part of earned sick time

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Explore opportunities with office leadership to provide access to mental health professionals/EAP (on/off site)

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Creative & Social Bonding

Movement & Physical Health

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