taking the sting out of a crisis
e-News April 2005
Edited by Dr. David Perl MB BS, MBCI
docleaf® helps you prevent crises and cope with their after-effects. We provide comprehensive and extensive services in Crisis Management, Trauma Counselling and Overseas Health & Safety.
Click here for our web site.
De-fusing or de-briefing?
The debate goes on over the
effectiveness of trauma de-briefing using clinical
psychologists. This follows the Cochrane report and with the
British Medical journal publishing the Kenardy report (click
here for report) into critical incident de-briefing.
Both these reports claim it does not have the effect that it promotes. For a
copy of the more in-depth Cochrane report contact us
here.
However, there have been just as many papers published
promoting the technique. They point to the rapid effect it has
on assisting recovery and also the positive impact it has on
the person receiving counselling. This is in terms of their view of
the incident, the people and the companies involved.
What is absolutely vital in those first few days after a
traumatic incident is that those person's affected receive
'trauma de-fusing' or what we call "psychological first
aid". This can be carried out at a lower
level and a lower cost than psychological de-briefing.
De-fusers are generally people qualified in grief,
bereavement, rape and fatal trauma. They can provide the
necessary 'emotional' and 'practical' support to people
affected by traumatic incidents. They are a shoulder to cry
on, expert listeners and very experienced in their field.
They can take the strain away from your own staff so they
can get on with any behind the scenes arrangements.
Based on our own first hand experience and to suit our clients needs, docleaf®
provides a service to cater for this
requirement. You can take advantage by despatching
lower cost 'de-fusers' from the docleaf® 'care team' to the
scene. For reassurance, all are team are members
of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy. These 'care team' personnel
can save you up to 50% off the cost of a qualified trauma
psychologist. This can be significant if you are
deploying a number of the team or if they are providing support for a number of days.
Nonetheless, some situations can still require the expert
'trauma psychologist'. Their services can often be more
effective in face to face sessions or by phone when your
customers or staff are safely back at home with their family
and friends. It is generally only after a longer period
that it becomes apparent whether people require more
specialist support from a qualified
psychologist. The docleaf® 'trauma specialists' are available
to provide this service anywhere in the UK or via our 24 hr
helpline to any customers or staff who require it.
If you are looking to send support to the incident, then
give us a call. We can advise you on which of the two
services, (the docleaf® 'care team' or the docleaf® 'trauma specialists') are appropriate for the
incident you are experiencing.
Hotel and other supplier safety audits overseas
docleaf® are now in a position to carry out safety
assessment's of suppliers overseas with a growing team of overseas based health
& safety managers and UK based staff who can travel out to resort. The docleaf®
audit and risk tool (dART™) system provides a comprehensive audit protocol for
fire, pool, hygiene and general safety, developed to cover the EU Fire safety
recommendations, EU Food safety directive and current 'good practice' standards
in pool and general safety.
The requirements of the package travel regulations do mean that any company
'packaging' holidays has to accept the liability of its third party suppliers
overseas, therefore your only real legal defence against any civil or criminal
claims is by having a robust 'due diligence' system in place with an approved
system of safety auditing your suppliers.
Many companies simply don't allocate sufficient resources to this area as its
put into the 'too difficult' box, an 'overhead' that brings no financial reward.
That is, until you experience an incident where you, your staff and your company
are suddenly exposed to criminal investigation, media attention and the personal
trauma of the courtroom.
docleaf® can help to start you along the path to getting your
house in order, with cost effective solutions based on our in depth experience
of overseas health & safety.
If you want a chat or would like someone from the docleaf®
team to come and visit you and talk through the various options then please
don't hesitate to get in touch.
Crisis Simulations
If you want to test your crisis plans and procedures, then nothing is better
than a full blown 'simulation', Using our network of specialists docleaf®
can
put your team under immense pressure, with real life scenarios backed up with
calls from distressed relatives, media, victims, government and other officials.
A recent simulation of a derailment of 'Eurostar' on route to Brussels with
serious injuries and fatalities for an American travel company put their whole
incident team under tremendous strain. However, as they had well prepared plans,
with procedures in place all put together with help from docleaf®
, they coped
fantastically well on the day. There was still some learning of course and the
necessary amendments are being made to their procedures but we'd like to share
the thoughts of their Chief Executive:
"We appreciate the support that docleaf®
has provided over the years - you
have made us a better organization in a number of ways. And I personally enjoy
meeting with you"
If you want to test your company then do please get in touch, our service ranges
from simple table top exercises to the full blown simulation, so can suit most
companies individual needs and budget.
About this eNews:
The above articles are written by Dr. David Perl, Chief Executive of docleaf®, unless otherwise mentioned. Articles are copyrighted to docleaf®. Permission to reprint will usually be granted for no charge. Write to info@docleaf.com
A collection of articles about Crisis Management can be found at: www.docleaf.com/enews.htm