Before a Critical Incident Strikes - The Pre-Incident Planning and Prevention Phase

It can change the course of events. Sometimes ittrainings is then designed to teach managers and
can help to avoid a tragic event entirely.employees to function successfully, while
Sometimes it can ease and shorten the period ofnegotiating the stress reactions that are likely to
recovery significantly. Safety managers know itbe experienced. Concrete skills to manage the
and so do crisis professionals...emotional, behavioral and physical components of
Pre-incident planning is a crucial part of the workthese reactions is key to these trainings.
of critical incident stress management teams.Additionally, those that are prepared for the range
During this phase, which often involves expertsof reactions that are common in the hours,
from a wide range of disciplines, protocols areweeks, days and months after a trauma, have
designed to increase workplace safety and tothe best chance for quick recovery from their
manage traumatic incidents.traumatic exposure. To this end, a comprehensive
As Critical Incident Stress Responders, our part ofreview of post traumatic stress symptoms and
the pre-incident planning effort is two-fold: Tosyndromes is also part of the pre-incident phase.
prepare management and workers to functionFocus on specific ways that trauma affects
under extreme circumstances and to increaseindividuals at different life stages, with a variety of
their readiness to negotiate the emotional impactlife circumstances, with previous traumatic
of a trauma.experiences and losses, or with pre-existing
During and immediately following a critical incident,emotional conditions should be included, for the
demands are great and emotional resources aretraining to truly be useful in to participants. Finally,
challenged. The traumatic event may be brief or itself-care strategies to be implemented
may be prolonged. Management will be involved inimmediately after the traumatic occurrence and
decisions to try to curtail or limit the damagingthroughout the post-traumatic period should be
effects of the incident. On-going operations maythoroughly reviewed, with each participant
need careful monitoring, so that safety is notdeveloping her/his own plan, based on the training
further compromised while they are shut down.and their knowledge of their own reactions.
Shut down may be a complicated processIndustry and workforce specific guidelines must
requiring the undivided attention of some workers.also be developed to assist management with
Assistance will be needed for injured individualsreturn to operations after the critical incident.
and the safety of others in the vicinity of theProcedures to assess the readiness of each
incident must be safeguarded. One or moreemployee to return to work, is the final task of
employees may need to be available to providepre-incident planning, which is very important to
information to firefighters, paramedics and police.insuring that additional critical incident risk factors
Contact will need to be made with the families ofare not being created.
the injured, or deceased. The tasks are many andFor those of us with frequent contact with the
often need to be executed simultaneously, allpain and anguish that surrounds critical incidents, it
while each manager and employee grapples withis indeed rewarding for our Team to be able to
their own reactions to the accident, robbery, orutilize their skills to both prevent and limit post
whatever the critical incident may be.traumatic suffering. We foresee a time coming
To function effectively under these conditions,when pre-incident planning and education will be a
planning needs to give consideration to the rangestandard part of safety planning and orientation in
of potential critical incidents in each given industry,the corporate environment, as is now occurring in
and to the delineation of all activities which wouldpost 9/11 public safety initiatives.
have to take place, should one occur. A series of