Supporting Staff during Crisis Looking after your staff throughout - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Supporting Staff during Crisis

Looking after your staff throughout crisis

Louise Elstow, Fynbos Consulting 14th October 2019, London Health and Safety Group

Intro

• Tend to focus on front line staff from

emergency services

• Be prepared to look after staff welfare

before, during and after an emergency/crisis

• Considering staff welfare throughout the

whole emergency/crisis management cycle

Anticipate

Horizon scanning for potential emergencies

Assess

Threat / impact / risk

Prevent

Reduce likelihood of event happening. Control measures / security

Prepare

Develop plans, training, mitigation

• f effects

Respond

Act- emergency response/ BCM (plant recovery)

Recover

New normal, incorporating lessons

Emergency/Crisis Management Cycle

Prevention/ Mitigation Preparation Response Recovery

Staff support includes

Not just physical health and safety of responders:

• Absence or minimising

potential physical harm

• Risk assessments
• Breaks / time off /

refreshments

• Practical support
• Etc…..

Also takes into account:

• Emotional support
• Mental wellbeing
• Considering other external

factors (e.g. family circumstance, health)

• Communication
• Making sense of what has

happened

Which staff?

Who are we talking about?

• Swat emergency response team
• Only those on duty rotas
• Volunteers (outside their normal

role)

• Other organisations or individuals
• Whole organisation
• How have you identified them?
• Do they know who they are?

What is expected of them?.......

• Are they practically and

emotionally prepared?

Preparation

Planning

• Involve as many people as

possible in the plan –not just the planners

• Potential mindsetdifference

between Cat 1/2 responders and other organisations who may not expect to respond

• Identify best roles to suit

existing skills and knowledge

• Risk assessments for the likely

tasks and locations of work

• Work with line management

Photo credits: Yashima, Creative Commons License

Preparation

Training and Exercising

• Training

– in line with response responsibilities (be realistic) – Training needs to be regular and appropriate to role – Incorporate flexibility and adaptability as the plan always falls at first sight of the enemy!

• Exercising

– all people involved who might have to respond –not just planners – Type of exercise suitable for their training and role – Live -most likely to replicate the stress that they might be under – Active learning after exercises

What about you

In small groups or with the person next to you, discuss (5 mins):

• What kinds of crises does your organisation plan for?
• What does preparation look like?
• As health and safety individuals – are you part of

planning/preparation in your organisation?

Response

• Adequate protection from physical

hazards on site

• External factors at thattime (e.g.

family, health etc)

• Physical / practical/ emotional

support from others

– Shift lengths/ patterns/ frequency – Rest and breaks –for refreshment and being off duty (from being responsible) – Accommodation (people away from home comforts) – Transport to and from response – Buddy system?

• Hot debriefs –operational and

emotional aspect

Not my pic!

How might your staff react?

Potential Reactions

What emotions might they display? How might they behave? How might they think? What physical signs might show?

How many did you get?

Physical

chills thirst fatigue twitches vomiting dizziness weakness chest pain headaches elevated blood pressure rapid heart rate muscle tremors shock symptoms teeth grinding visual difficulties sweating difficulty breathing Stomach ache

Cognitive

confusion nightmares uncertainty hypervigilance suspiciousness intrusive images blaming someone poor problem solving poor abstract thinking poor attention/memory disorientation heightened or lowered alertness increased or decreased awareness

• f surroundings

Emotional

fear guilt grief panic denial anxiety agitation irritability sadness anger apprehension emotional shock emotional outbursts feeling overwhelmed loss of emotional control Inappropriate emotional response

Behavioural

withdrawal inability to rest pacing change in social activity loss or increase of appetite hyperalertness to environment increased alcohol consumption change in usual communications

Recovery

Immediate

• Debriefs:

– Cold debrief – Structured debriefs

• Time off afterwards
• Phased return to ‘normal

duties’

• Briefing colleagues
• OH/ TRiM/EA Programmes
• Leaflet
• Performance targets?

Longer term

• Post incident reports
• Learning from crises –

‘lessons learned vs identified’

• Inquiry – moving on/

closure or not?

• Recognition for efforts
• Memorials and reminders?
• Monitoring and signposting

to additional NHS services

Looking after your people

• Staff welfare does not begin

and end during response

• There is a lot to be done in

advancebefore anything actually happens

• Equally, just ensuring that there is

an employee assistance programme in place may not be the end of it…..

Any questions?

Louise Elstow

Emergency Management Consultant Fynbos ConsultingLimited Louise.elstow@fynboslimited.co.uk 07810 433 181