ORGANISATIONAL DISASTER PLANNING
& PSYCHOLOGICAL FIRST AID

ORGANISATIONAL DISASTER PLANNING
& PSYCHOLOGICAL FIRST AID

Psychological Preparedness for Trauma (Psychological First Aid PFA)

No one can predict when a traumatic event or critical incident will strike in the workplace. Types of critical incidents in the workplace include:-  explosion, assault, fire, industrial accident, sudden death etc..

Having Critical Incident Response (CIR) services in place at a time of traumatic event is a cost-effective means of supporting employees in regaining their ability to function normally after a very stressful experience.

Lighthouse Psychology Trauma Team

You can be assured our psychologists will be able to devise a cost-effective critical incident response that meets the psychological needs of your organisation.

Dr Chrissie Tizzard and her team have been at the leading edge of incident response in the UK for over two decades and have developed cutting edge resources in this field backed up by clinical research programmes.

We offer critical incident response using evidence-based practice in psychological first-aid.

We support individuals, teams and organisations in planning their trauma response as well as during crises and following traumatic events.

From first point of contact, we promote the recovery of your organisation and that principally means supporting your staff.

Training the Trainers

In the past we have trained most of the EAP providers in the UK. These have included:

The Aftermath of Trauma

Most individuals who experience a critical incident (CI) will experience a range of unpleasant psychological symptoms.This is to be expected. For most people these are short lived.

Individuals do not normally imagine the kind of trauma that very occasionally occurs.  As a result, their cognitive and emotional systems register an enormous shock. However, after a collective educative input, individuals realise what they are experiencing is normal. This provides a huge relief and assists in the normal resolution of symptoms which commonly occurs within 2 – 4 weeks after the incident.

A very few employees will experience severe symptoms within this period. This is known as Acute Stress Disorder and symptoms generally resolve within the above timeframe.

We use a process known as psychological first aid which provides an educational function.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

There may be a very small number of individuals who will proceed to develop PTSD. Those at risk will be identified very early under the programme.

Our in-house programme teaches managers exactly how to identify those at a high risk of developing severe symptoms. Immediate treatment may then be started by our clinicians.

How Does the Lighthouse Psychology PFA Package Work?

Lighthouse Psychology provides trauma response in three easy cost-effective ways

Programme 1 - Lighthouse Gold

Pre-incident package and full trauma management

Lighthouse Psychology work with senior managers or HR personnel to design a trauma response programme that responds to the unique needs of an organisation. We will develop a critical incident response programme that is capable of responding to a range of incidents that have the potential to leave a negative emotional effect on the organisation if unprepared for. Lighthouse Psychology provide a Consultant Clinical Psychologist on site within 2 hours of the incident to provide psychological first aid to your staff. The intervention provides several practical educative sessions on site covering psychological first aid. This normalises symptoms and concentrates on practical problems that have occurred. The process accelerates the resolution of symptoms. Lighthouse psychologists are able to screen efficiently for those personnel who are at high risk of developing PTSD and to arrange effective evidenced based treatment immediately. Four to five weeks after the incident, Lighthouse Psychology will provide full follow up services. It will provide effective screening and where clinically appropriate, evidenced based treatment for employees who have developed psychological symptoms of possible PTSD.

Programme 2 – Lighthouse Silver

We teach senior staff to provide initial psychological first aid and to identify those at risk of developing possible PTSD. The organisation will also have the power to refer ‘at risk’ personnel to Lighthouse Psychology for specialist intervention at an early stage.

Programme 3 - Lighthouse Bronze

Post-incident package and trauma response

Where organisations do not hold an in-place trauma response package, they may simply contact Lighthouse Psychology who will respond quickly to the situation. This will include scene management, psychological first aid, screening of those at risk and full access to fast treatment.

Our Clients