Post Trauma Support and Debriefing

Purpose

To enable employees, involved in a traumatic incident at work, to recover from the emotional impact of the experience, and return to normal functioning and levels of productivity.

This is in the interests of the organisation, as post trauma intervention facilitates the return to normal work and hence is cost effective, avoiding sickness absence and disruption to performance.

Objectives

Psychological Debriefing

Individual Objectives Includes:

• The ventilation of impressions, feelings, and reactions.
• The promotion of cognitive organisation through clear understanding of events and reactions.
• Decreasing group and individual tension.
• Emphasising the normality of the experience.
• Preparation for symptoms or reactions which may arise.
• Identifying resources available for help for future.

When Should Psychological Debriefing be Used?

Examples of when post-trauma intervention can be helpful

• Death or serious injury in the workplace
• Life threatening incident with a colleague
• Highly violent or aggressive experience
• Sudden and unexpected change
• Re-current minor traumas – the cumulative impact of these can be as same as a single long traumatic incident.

The Character and Experience of Those Involved

Some people may be more vulnerable to higher levels of stress and traumatic reactions if they are inexperienced or have experienced, or are experiencing problems at work, home or in others areas of their lives. e.g.:

• Divorce, bereavement, martial problems
• Depression, anxiety, hospitalisation

The Process

Psychological Debriefing should take place NOT BEFORE 48 HOURS after the incident and can be conducted weeks or months later.

It should not be held on the same day as the event, as both personnel and victims experience various degrees of shock and unreality, and many are still in an altered state of consciousness in which intake and processing information is different from the normal.

On the day of the event, support should be made available to give reassurance, defuse the impact of primary stages of shock and also to  present the opportunity of verbal expressions of the experience.

Many staff find that disclosing personal information about feelings to their direct line manager is too threatening. In such cases a more appropriate facilitator may be chosen. The manager can ensure that time and space is made available to conduct such groups during work time and also to incorporate it into their organisational policy.

Venue
The Debriefing should take place in a room where there will be no interruptions. There should be a table in the centre and, if possible, tea/coffee making facilities should be available. The venue should be informal and not to give the impression of being a “therapy” session.

Who should be present?
The Debriefing can be either with one person or more.

If it is a group debriefing, all those who are part of the team should attend, even if they were not present for the incident. An ideal group size would be 6-8 people.

Structure of Debriefing

INTRODUCTION	Self introduction and first-names of participants Purpose Rules Procedure	Purpose explained Rules agreed Method of working
THE FACTS	Before During After	Before the incident? During the incident? After the incident?
THE FEELINGS	Sensory Impressions Emotional Reactions/Feelings	Triggers moving onto feelings Feelings and emotions generated
THE FUTURE	Normalisation Information Support	Reactions are normal Information about possible reactions Looking at what support is available
ENDING	Final Statements