Despite many scholarly strides made towards understanding suicidal ideation and suicidal self-directed violence, little research has been done on how this work affects research staff interacting or interfacing with at-risk participants. Burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma affect the well-being of healthcare and research staff across mental health and healthcare fields. While the hardships of studying difficult topics go unseen, and untreated, research staff are at risk of increased mental health distress and turnover. In this presentation, we will review a model intended to increase wellness and coping among study staff working in difficult research topics such as suicide, high mortality and chronic illness, and death.