The Critical Incident Staff Support Pathway (CrISSP) is a voluntary, free and confidential service for all staff and volunteers across West Yorkshire. It is coordinated and overseen by the West Yorkshire Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub. It offers you and your team support following potentially traumatic or critical incidents. It is operated by colleagues who offer this service in addition to their normal ‘day jobs’. They have undergone specific and intensive training, and receive ongoing supervision and training, to enable them to offer a specific model of support to colleagues following significant and/or potentially traumatic incidents in the workplace.
Click here to find out more about Critical Incident Support
It is acknowledged that working in any role in health and social care or the related voluntary sector is highly stressful and at times workers can encounter potentially traumatic events. People working in caring professions are often expected and expect of themselves to be self-reliant and just get on with it and cope in the face of potentially traumatic and emotionally challenging work. It is sometimes assumed those working in caring and related roles are less susceptible to trauma and are somehow immune or desensitised to the difficult work they carry out. But staff and volunteers are human first and if the impact of this work is left unattended it can have a significant impact on the individual person, their team, their home life and ultimately the care and support they provide.
Evaluation of a training programme for critical incident debrief facilitators
- Written by Dr Nigel Wainwright and Dr Kerry Hinsby of the Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub team
This is the first study to evaluate a training programme for post-incident discussion facilitators, and suggests the training was valued by participants.
Professionals who attended a 5-day training programme based on critical incident stress debrief principles reported significantly higher confidence in supporting peers following incidents and facilitating post-incident structured team discussions after the training. Most participants reported that they would do things differently because of the training and that they found the training relevant, useful and engaging.
