Incidents such as a serious accident, a robbery or the suicide of a work colleague can have a traumatic effect on an organisation’s employees. In recent years, the merit of a structured approach to crisis management has been increasingly recognised, not only in implementing preventative measures, if this is feasible, but also for managing the incident and its aftermath.

A traumatic event affects people’s perceptions both as individuals and in groups, and Focus EAP has designed a process that responds to both demands. It provides the management of an organisation with a policy that integrates procedure, information access, support, counselling and training, demonstrating a clear commitment to occupational health & safety and duty of care.

Critical Incident Support includes:

• Telephone helpline – experienced telephone counsellors provide employees with counselling support and advice
• Family support – we offer the option of an extended service to include telephone counselling for employee family members
• Group and individual debriefing – specialists resolve incident related issues to alleviate post-trauma stress
• Post- trauma counselling – individual face-to-face counselling is provided to those experiencing post-trauma stress
• Management training – key staff are trained in post-incident management, including monitoring those involved in the event and intervening with support for those affected.