At Care first, we offer Critical Incident Support as a part of our Employee Assistance Programme. Our Critical Incident support is in place to minimise the effects that a traumatic incident can have on staff.
What is a critical incident?
A critical incident may be defined as any sudden and unexpected incident or sequence of events which causes trauma within an organisation. Critical and traumatic incidents can have severe, complex and significant effects on people. These incidents can do the same to your organisation.
Timely, professional interventions in times of crisis will help to minimise the level of disruption an incident may have on your organisation and its performance.
Critical incidents can involve a great number of people, such as with rail crashes, or smaller groups affected by violence, abuse or a death in the workplace – all with far reaching impact. Extensive experience in managing critical incidents within both the public and private sectors, means that Care first can provide an immediate and informed response to any situation. Our interventions will help your organisation to manage and contain the impact of trauma.
Care first Critical Incident Support
Care first is available to respond 24 hours a day, via our Telephone Counselling Centre. We also employ full time, professional counsellors throughout the UK to guarantee an immediate response to a critical incident.
The aim of critical incident support is to minimise the effects of a traumatic incident on your staff in order to:
- enable people to resume effective operation both at work and at home as quickly as possible
- monitor and support individuals who may need additional help to manage post-trauma symptoms
- provide reassurance to all staff and their families that your organisation is concerned about their wellbeing
At Care first, we understand that each critical incident is unique and is therefore project managed accordingly in close consultation with the customer organisation. We work with them in the immediate aftermath of an incident and in providing ongoing support as required.
What to expect if you contact Care first regarding a Critical Incident
The first thing to expect when you contact our service is that you will need to be able to disclose details about the incident. Our Clinical Team will arrange a scoping call with you to determine what support would be best for the organisation and workforce who need it. During this call, we will ask a series of questions and run through the different ways in which we can provide support.
The support that we provide would be bespoke to each organisation, however we have provided a list of possible outcomes below:
1. We are able to provide critical incident support over the telephone.
2. We work together with BACP Accredited Counsellors all over the UK, this allows us to
provide on-site support if an organisation requires it following on from a critical incident.
3. Our on-site support can involve a range of individual or group sessions. It is important to note, that a group session can only include up to 15 people.
Occasionally people get ‘stuck’ in the process of recovering from an incident or traumatic
experience. If you are still troubled by after effects several months later, it is probably time to seek some outside help.
Twenty four hours a day, every day of the year you can call our freephone number and talk to a Care First professional counsellor. Discuss any of your concerns – work related or personal, in complete confidence. Feelings and thoughts may or may not relate directly to the incident you have experienced. For many people the opportunity to talk to a counsellor who is not a friend, family member or work colleague can be extremely helpful.
If you would like to view the Webinar on ‘Care first Critical Incident Support’ this is being delivered live on Monday 17th April at 12pm, please use the following link to register for this session –
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8479726573432045920
If you are unable to join the webinar live, a recording of the session can be accessed using the same link above after the webinar has taken place.
*Disclaimer: This article is for general information only. We cannot be held responsible for any actions you might take as a result of it. Please seek medical advice before making any significant changes to your eating habits or lifestyle.