Critical Incident Support
Supporting People Following a Difficult or Traumatic Event
A serious or unexpected incident in the workplace can have a significant impact on the people involved. Employees and volunteers may experience a wide range of emotional and physical responses following an upsetting, frightening or traumatic event.
People can react in very different ways. Some may feel anxious, angry, frightened, shocked or guilty. Others may experience difficulty sleeping or concentrating, feel unusually emotional or withdrawn, or notice physical symptoms of stress.
These reactions can be understandable responses to an extraordinary or distressing experience.
Critical Incident Support provides organisations with a structured and supportive response following a difficult event, helping those affected to understand their reactions, access appropriate support and begin moving forward.
Supporting Your Staff After a Critical Incident
Following a serious incident, organisations naturally want to do everything they can to support the wellbeing of their employees.
The immediate priority is to provide a safe and supportive environment without placing pressure on individuals to discuss traumatic experiences before they feel ready to do so.
Support can include opportunities for individuals or groups to talk about how they have been affected, practical information about common responses following trauma, strategies for managing stress and maintaining wellbeing, and guidance about where additional help can be found.
The aim is not to assume that everyone will respond in the same way. People process difficult experiences differently, and support should reflect those individual needs.
Group and Individual Support
Depending upon the circumstances, support can be provided to individuals, teams or groups of employees affected by the same event.
Group sessions can provide an opportunity to acknowledge what has happened, understand some of the reactions people may be experiencing and consider practical ways of supporting themselves and one another.
Importantly, nobody should feel pressured to describe or relive the details of a traumatic experience.
Some people may benefit from additional individual support. Where appropriate, I can help identify when further counselling, trauma-focused therapy, EMDR or another specialist service may be worth considering.
Supporting Recovery and Resilience
Most people have considerable natural resilience and, with appropriate support, will gradually recover following a distressing experience.
The purpose of Critical Incident Support is to work alongside that natural process — providing reassurance, information and support while remaining alert to individuals who may be experiencing more persistent difficulties.
For employers and organisations, providing appropriate support also demonstrates that the psychological wellbeing of staff is being taken seriously following a difficult event.
Critical Incident Support for Organisations
Support can be tailored according to the nature of the incident, the number of people affected and the needs of your organisation.
This may include:
- Individual or group support following a critical incident
- Psychological and emotional support for affected employees
- Information about common responses to traumatic events
- Practical strategies for managing stress and maintaining wellbeing
- Support for managers and teams
- Identification of individuals who may benefit from additional therapeutic support
- Signposting to appropriate services where further help is required
Every incident is different, so the most appropriate response can be discussed with you before support is provided.
Enquiries and Response
If your organisation has experienced a critical incident and you would like to discuss support for your staff or volunteers, please contact me.
We can discuss what has happened, the number of people affected, the type of support that may be appropriate, availability, response times and costs.
Please use the Contact page to discuss your organisation's requirements.
