Has your team recently experienced a highly-stressful event?
From dealing with workplace violence to witnessing the death of a colleague, some industries are exposed to high-stakes environments daily. After a critical incident occurs, people may experience extreme feelings of shock and denial. In fact, intense emotions immediately following an incident are normal and part of the recovery process. So how can you and your team provide the support that’s needed to process these complex emotions and reactions? Keep reading to understand what critical incidents are, and learn five support tips that you and your team can immediately put into action.
What are Critical Incidents?
According to the USC WorkWell Center, a critical incident is defined as an event that threatens physical or emotional safety, or results in physical or psychological harm. Critical incidents can challenge our sense of safety, security, and competency in the world. These situations can be both scary and disruptive for the individual involved and those around them, and although a portion of people naturally recover on their own, those feelings can continue if they’re not dealt with properly. Critical incidents become traumatic incidents when people experience some degree of cognitive, emotional, or psychological decompensation from the incident.
So how can you, as a supervisor or colleague, help support someone dealing with the aftermath of a critical incident? Here are our top support actions to help others using critical incident stress management tools.
Top 5 Support Tips
1) Regain control of what and who you talk to about things.
When people experience a major critical incident in their lives, often the number one thing they hope to regain is a sense of control. During the critical incident, it’s not uncommon to feel they likely felt helpless and out of control. So, regaining a sense of control in their lives is an essential step forward in their recovery. Remind them that they are in control of the who, what, when, where, and why when it comes to discussing what they endured. You can also give them a sense of control over smaller things by offering choices whenever possible.
2) Get physical distance from the event and reclaim control of your environment.
Put yourself in a physical environment in which you feel like you have more control or predictability on what and who is around you. Try not to focus on the elements of the situation you could not control, and instead, focus on the ones you did. Most importantly, take care of yourself by avoiding alcohol, getting a good sleep, maintaining exercise routines, and limiting caffeine intake.
3) Watch for cognitive errors.
When people go through extreme or traumatic events, they are more prone to have fragmented, incomplete, or unclear memories. In addition, critical events cause us to view the world differently. Anyone who may have dealt with a similar incident in the past, or back-to-back critical incidents, is more likely to struggle with the present incident. In addition, people who were already dealing with other outside stressors before the incident (even unrelated to their job) may have a more difficult time dealing with a critical incident.
4) When you’re ready, go ahead and put words around it.
Take alone time if you need it, but be careful not to isolate yourself. Once you’re ready, find someone to talk to about what you endured. By articulating what happened to you to another person, you can help your brain create a cohesive story and make meaning out of the event. Basically, talking to someone can help you file and order and file the incident better in your memory.
5) Leave room for loved ones.
When you first get home or reconnect with family, do your best to tell your loved ones how you want to be treated. Exercise the “3 Choices Technique,” in which you answer this important question:
Do you want...?
1. To be left alone for a little while
2. To be distracted (i.e. do something fun or relaxing)
3. To talk about it
Eventually, when you have mental or emotional room for it, ask your loved ones to express to you what the event was like for them, and how it impacted them, too. Then, discuss what that means for you both moving forward.
What’s the Recovery Timeline?
Immediately following the incident, there’s no rule book for what is “normal” behavior. While some people may feel numb, others may feel intense emotions. Isolation, difficulty sleeping, fatigue, constantly thinking about the event over and over, and exhaustion are all common within the first few days.
After about one-to-two weeks, people may exhibit more irritability or annoyance, often without a clear explanation why. When things don’t go as planned, people may get more frustrated than normal, too. Post-incident, people may also appear more sensitive to stimuli, such as unpredictable changes in the environment, like noises.
On average, most people see a natural gradual decline in trauma-related responses as time passes, usually around the two-week mark, though it can happen even sooner. If, however, symptoms persist both in frequency and intensity without any change for much longer, or they are immediately intolerable, engaging with a behavioral health professional is strongly encouraged.
