Trauma Care

When an accident or other traumatic incident happens in the workplace a business has both a legal duty of care and a moral duty to assist its employees.

Such an event can result in two sorts of trauma:

• Post-traumatic reactions related to the event itself
• Negative reactions to the way the business or its managers handle the aftermath

Of these, the second is often the more long lasting, and more damaging in terms of anger towards the company and its managers, decreased morale, and consequent lost production or even resignation. Such anger is often the cause of the bitterness in litigation.

By providing a comprehensive response a business should expect:

• To deal effectively with post-traumatic reactions
• To produce a positive reaction in staff who should feel cared for and valued

Read the FAQ's; frequently asked questions for views on some of the issues potential customers raise.

How to Respond?

During the past 15 years a clearer picture has emerged as to what is genuinely helpful in early intervention following trauma.

Simple “one off” interventions are now known to be either of little value or sometimes even counter-productive. What is helpful is a balanced and sustained intervention with different phases over a period of time based on the principles of:

• Not too much
• Not too soon
• Not too little
• Not too late

Often in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event an organisation feels overwhelmed and in response seeks to flood the affected location with “counsellors”.

This is not helpful – affected people cannot make use of “counselling” or any other formal psychological intervention at this point. It is simply too early. What they require is attention to practical needs, containing and calming of their initial reactions, a message of care and concern, and information about what has happened and what is going to happen. There is no reason for this to be provided by outside professionals, and indeed, they may not be best placed to do so. Suitably trained members of the organisation itself, working within a framework of available advice can best achieve this as they know and understand the organisation. This is the task known as Defusing.

It is always what needs to be done (and what does not need to be done) rather than how many helpers are available that is the key issue. It is the focused, purposeful, judiciously timed intervention which counts, rather than simple volume of helpers.

However another factor also operates – once the initial crisis has passed and things are calmer, the organisation looks to its normal priorities. Commitment to longer term support wanes and those affected feel forgotten. The organisation often recognises something is wrong only when problems are deeply entrenched, and intervention is more difficult.

This means that the organisation must be proactive – rather than waiting for problems to emerge, it must proactively put in place a series of interventions that last over a matter of weeks or months that ensure that everyone who needs help has access to it.

Lastly, the style of help is crucial. It is easy to see “individual counselling” as an ideally undisruptive option. However, the workplace is the context for recovery, and colleagues are potentially a major resource for each other. Interventions are often then best conducted in work groups where it is possible to mobilise group resources.

It is these principles which underpin CCP’s Trauma Care Programme.

CCP provides a complete trauma aftercare service:

• Policy development
  
  Many organisations have business recovery plans. But how many of these include policies for the human aspects of recovery; how many of these acknowledge that their staff have experienced a traumatic incident; and how many of these understand exactly what trauma is and how it affects people?
  
  All organisations need a policy for dealing with the human aftermath of traumatic events in the workplace. CCP will run a consultancy exercise for the development of a specific trauma policy.

• Defuser selection
  
  It is essential to choose the right people to act as Defusers. CCP will assist in the selection either by direct interview or with a range of selection tools the company itself can use.

• Pre-trauma training
  
  Sometimes workers who have a high likelihood of encountering traumatic and disturbing events can be prepared for it. Developed in conjunction with Prelude Consulting, pre-trauma training is a ‘stress inoculation’ package for such individuals.

• Defuser training
  
• CCP has a range of 1, 2 or 3 day knowledge & skill development courses enabling company staff to manage the psychological needs of traumatised staff and customers.
  
  CCP’s Defuser training programmes are without equal, backed as they are by this depth of experience and knowledge. Our programmes provide the backbone preparation for working in partnership with the organisation. Care should not simply be left to an external provider – the organisation’s staff must become involved or the staff or customer’s perception of the company’s concern will be negative. Hence training is crucial for appropriate personnel within the organisation.

• The Trauma Care Programme
  
  The Trauma Care Programme is a flexible multi-stage package of interventions involving CCP’s experienced Incident Managers, 24 hour Telephone Consultants and Travelling Consultants.

This set of comprehensive interventions creates an audit trail which demonstrates that the company has shown duty of care to its staff.

CCP has researched the incidents in which it has become involved over 15 years and t he following conclusions can be drawn:

For staff, the effects of dealing with or experiencing trauma should not be underestimated:

• At three to four weeks after the incident over 40% of staff experience significant levels of psychological symptoms which affect both their work and social lives and relationships
• With help, staff generally recover over a three month period

People recognise support to be necessary:

• Ninety seven per cent of those involved believe psychological support is needed after traumatic incidents

People are satisfied with CCP's Trauma Care Programme:

• Ninety seven per cent of people find the Trauma Care Programme sufficient to meet their needs
• Ninety nine per cent report finding early intervention helpful
• Over ninety per cent report finding the Centre's literature helpful
• Recovery in over 80% begins following the first stage of the intervention

Benefits of proactive post-trauma support

• Duty of care is fulfilled
• Continuity of work is maintained as less than one per cent of staff go off sick following traumatic incidents