---

Supporting your Team to be Trauma-Resilient

Due to their unique and challenging work environments, emergency services workers are exposed to a variety of situations that can make them more susceptible to a range of both physical and psychological injuries.

Unlike other professions, emergency services workers are routinely and regularly exposed to potentially traumatic events in the course of their work.

So how much trauma exposure can one emergency services worker handle? One event? Two events? One-hundred events? The answer is ‘it depends’.

It depends on the nature of the events (sometimes one event is enough – such as a major near-death incident, or exposure to a particularly horrific accident or murder scene). It depends on the frequency of exposure to traumatic events in a particular time period (a cluster of traumatic events can rattle even the most toughened emergency services worker). It also depends on how big people’s ‘trauma buckets’ are to begin with (in other words, how trauma-resilient they are). But there is one thing we can be more definite about: when it comes to trauma, no one is psychologically bullet proof.

So, there’s the bad, although probably not unexpected news – no one has the innate resilience to remain unaffected by endless exposure to trauma. But here’s the good news – as leaders you have the ability to maintain and even improve your team’s trauma resilience. In fact you, and your boss, and your boss’ boss arguably play one of the most important roles in whether your team members keep on keeping on (or don’t).

One of the common denominators in teams who are more trauma-resilient is the type of support provided by their manager after critical incidents. It generally boils down to four key manager actions – what are called the Four ‘A’s’ of effective critical incident support.

---

The Four ‘A’s’ of effective critical incident support

- ACKNOWLEDGE a job well done

In the hustle and bustle of everyday frontline duties it is easy to just move onto the next tasking or crisis. Even just a quick acknowledgment about the good work done by your team can make a big difference to how well they move on from a traumatic incident (even if it seems like what they did was an expected part of their role).

- ASK your team member how they are travelling

Take time to individually check-in with every team member involved after a critical incident. It might just be a simple (but genuine) question like ‘Are you alright? or ‘Are you OK?’.

- ASSESS any additional support needs

Sometimes a quick manager check-in isn’t enough. If you identify that an individual team member is struggling, take time to talk through the support the Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Program can offer. Click here to go to the CISM website.

You should notify CISM as soon as practicable after your team has been exposed to a traumatic incident.

For advice and support contact CISM 24/7 on 0427 181 207.

You can also discuss other support options with the Wellbeing Support Team

- ACTIVATE the ‘chain of command’ effect

What is the ‘chain of command’ effect I hear you ask?

Do not underestimate the importance of having a senior manager make contact with the affected team (either individually or together) for an informal check in. The higher the rank of the senior manager checking-in, the greater the positive impact. It is one of the most powerful support tools at your disposal, but is also one of the most underused.

So next time your team deals with a critical incident, consider organising for your boss (or your boss’ boss) to personally check-in with your team members – it will have more of an impact than you think.

Don’t forget to look after yourself

Finally, an important part of supporting your team to be trauma-resilient is making sure that you are looking after yourself. Making time to regularly debrief with someone you trust, maintaining an enjoyable and meaningful life outside of work, and staying fit and healthy all go a long way towards making sure you are in the best position to help your team stay trauma-resilient.

Need further support?

Find more information from Wellbeing Support here or call the number below.