Critical incidents may include, but are not limited to:

• Serious injury, illness, or death of a staff member
• Staff members lost or injured during fieldwork experiences
• A missing staff member
• Severe verbal or psychological aggression
• Physical assault
• Staff members witnessing a serious accident or incidence of violence
• Natural disaster e.g. epidemic, earthquake, flood, windstorm, hailstorm, or extremes of temperature
• Traumatic incident within an international staff member’s home country, such as a political coup
• Religious persecution, natural disaster
• Fire, bomb-threat, explosion, gas or chemical hazard or
• social issues e.g. sexual assault, drug use, alcohol abuse, internet abuse.

Critical incidents may trigger a wide range of physical and psychological symptoms, including increased heart rate, high blood pressure and anxiety. The initial action of Corpsychcare is to calm staff members following a critical incident and to ensure that their immediate needs are met. A member of staff, who was not involved in the incident, or affected by it, is responsible for this initial action.

Strategies to help manage the critical incident include:

• Contact emergency services if necessary.
• Convene a meeting for those involved as soon as possible.
• Summarise the incident and clarify uncertainties.
• Invite questions and discuss issues of concern.
• Show care and support.
• Draw up a plan of action, taking into account the needs of the staff.
• Make short-term arrangements for work responsibilities.
• Offer information on defusing and debriefing.

In all Critical incidents a critical incident form must be completed and given to management.

To see how the Critical Incident Trauma Response can be added to your EAP Service Agreement, please Contact Us today.