A Critical Incident is any event occurring in the workplace or arising out of the course of work that has the potential to cause trauma to the employees that have experienced or witnessed that event. These events can cause a significant disruption to employee’s sense of safety at work. Some examples of a critical or traumatic incident include:

• Serious workplace accidents
• Near miss where someone could have been injured
• Death e.g. heart attack
• Violent confrontations such as an assault or armed hold-up
• Natural disasters such as floods or bushfires, etc

Reactions to critical incidents can vary widely, depending upon how involved people are in the event, their personal history (if something similar has happened to them before) and personal health and stress levels before the event occurred.

Critical Incident Response (CIR)

We have extensive experience and expertise in providing critical incident response across the youth and community sector. By providing early intervention UltimateEAP counsellors can assist affected employees and managers with recovering and returning to normal functioning in the workplace. We offer a number of interventions in response to Critical Incidents including:

• 24-hours, 7 days a week availability
• Provision of Critical Incident Response Team counsellors on-site where necessary
• Provision of individual and / or group psychological first-aid
• Follow-up telephone counselling for affected employees
• Consulting with management in dealing with various aspects of the incident

By arrangement with the organisation, a Critical Incident Response Team counsellor will conduct a post-incident follow-up. The counsellor provides a comprehensive report for the organisation after the follow-up process has been completed. We will also seek feedback from the organisation in relation to the service through a Critical Incident Evaluation.

Critical Incident Consultancy and Training

UltimateEAP have considerable experience in the design and delivery of training programs in Critical Incident Stress Management, to help you have a plan of action in place in the event of a critical incident, covering topics such as:

• People’s reactions to critical incidents
• Understanding the needs of employees
• Roles and responsibilities of managers/supervisors
• How to communicate information about the incident

Mental health injuries are a significant concern to Worksafe and can result in significant time off work for affected employees, along with associated workers compensation risks. The aim of consultancy and training services is to help mitigate these risks by helping front-line managers understand best practice responses to traumatic workplace incident.