Critical Stress Management
A critical incident can affect an organisation at any time and can have a dramatic impact on the mental wellbeing of your team.
A critical incident is a stressful event or series of events that affects your mental wellbeing negatively and can ultimately cause psychological distress and impair your day-to-day functioning. This may be as a result of an assault, severe injury, death, fire or an incident that is sudden, overwhelming, threatening or protracted. It could also be the result of an accumulation of stressful incidents.
Involvement in, or exposure to, abnormal workplace incidents can lead a person to experience distress. Usual coping mechanisms may struggle to effectively deal with a critical incident.
It is important to note that while Critical Incident Stress Management and debriefing can be beneficial for many individuals, it is not suitable for everyone, especially those who are already experiencing severe mental health issues. In such cases, more individualised forms of therapy may be required.Psychological First Aid and ongoing counselling, are also commonly used in conjunction with or instead of Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD), depending on the situation and individual needs.
Following a critical incident, individuals may struggle to regain a sense of safety and normalcy, which could impact on their mental health. By using critical incident stress management strategies, employers can help those affected by an incident deal with any physical and emotional reactions.
- Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD): Organising CISD sessions where employees involved in a critical incident can come together in a safe and supportive environment to discuss their experiences, emotions, and reactions. CISD allows individuals to process their feelings and provides an opportunity for peer support.
- Mental Health First Aid (MHFA): Offers initial support until appropriate professional help is received or the mental health crisis is resolved.
- Psychological First Aid (PFA): Immediately following a critical incident, providing Psychological First Aid involves trained personnel offering emotional support and practical assistance to affected employees. PFA aims to stabilise individuals and connect them with necessary resources for further support.
- On-Site Support: Establishing on-site support services, such as crisis counsellors or Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), that employees can access after experiencing a critical incident. These resources can be instrumental in helping individuals cope with their immediate emotional needs.
- Establishing Peer Support Networks: Encouraging the formation of peer support groups or networks within the workplace, where employees can connect with others who have experienced similar incidents. Peer support can create a sense of understanding and solidarity among affected individuals.
- Flexible Work Arrangements: Offering flexible work arrangements, such as temporary schedule adjustments or time off, for employees who require additional recovery time following a critical incident.
- Communication and Information Sharing: Maintaining open communication channels to keep employees informed about support services available to them and promoting a culture of psychological safety, where employees feel comfortable discussing their emotional well-being.
- Follow-up support: Follow-up support refers to the ongoing assistance, care, and attention provided to individuals after they have experienced a particular event or undergone a specific intervention. Perspectives may change after the first debriefing session and additional sessions may need to focus on new aspects of the incident or stress reactions.
It's essential to recognise that CISM strategies should be integrated into an organisations overall health and safety program, and they should be administered by trained professionals or individuals with relevant crisis intervention expertise. Additionally, it's important for employers to regularly assess the effectiveness of these strategies and make adjustments as needed to better support their employees' mental health and well-being.