Each time a consultant accepts an on-site assignment from CCN to provide a Critical Incident Response (CIR), they are taking on a new challenge and a new opportunity to assist in the immediate aftermath of a workplace critical incident. The consultant’s clinical background has equipped them to be able to communicate compassion and care to impacted employees. Most of the employees affected by the event are healthy, functional, and are not seeking therapy. Because the consultant is typically the initial response to a disruptive event in the workplace, the role is both time limited and focused. It is different than the normal role of “counselor”. The Consultant mainly takes on an education role. We are able to provide information to employees on normal reactions to unexpected events, and be an assurance to them. We are seeking to help move them into action that will help them recover.
The primary technique used to achieve this is the CCN ACT model. The ACT approach incorporates all aspects of psychological first aid – Acknowledges the event, and its impact. We describe it, define it, and give it a name. Communicate information and practical assistance in a compassionate and professional manner. Transition toward the next steps the organization and the employees will need to take in the process of recovery and return to fuller functioning. This blog entry will aim to examine the importance of the “A” in this model; taking the stance that being able to acknowledge and name the event, no matter how unsettling, can help move people forward in their recovery after a critical incident in the workplace.
As a consultant, do you find that it is hard to talk about a critical incident using real names and terms while onsite? As a rule, our society finds it difficult to talk about topics such as death, without “sugar coating” it with common euphemisms, including “he passed away”, or “he passed”. These euphemisms that sound “nicer” versus “he died, she died, they died” have become somewhat the norm. Online articles suggest that a “shift” took place in the 1970’s in which people started to move away from the term, “died” to “passed away”. In an interview conducted by Bradshaw (2015) one funeral director suggested that the use of “passed away” instead of “died” is an indication of the times we live in–an era when people in general tend to prolong facing up to the hard facts of difficult situations as long as possible”.
For those impacted by tragedy, more specifically if that tragedy is a death, it can be difficult to come to terms with the finality of it all. A quick browse of online blogs and support group threads can speak to this. Some write about the idea of their child or loved one dying being “too real,” and “too tough to face”. The idea of them “passing on”, allowed them to continue through their grief process in a way that was “not challenging their denial, and not forcing them to accept it”.
As a CCN consultant, when we go on site, one of the first things we do as part of an Educational Group Briefing is acknowledge and name the incident. For example, a consultant might address the group in this fashion, “First and foremost I want to tell you all how sorry I am to hear about what happened. I am here from your EAP, and your company/management has asked that we be onsite here, today, to help support all of you. The way I understand it is that Employee A was doing electrical work near the Maintenance Building, received an electrical charge, and died at the hospital as a result of his injuries.” This may make even a seasoned consultant cringe, or a bit uncomfortable. That is normal, given we are all humans, who may also yearn for that sugar coating. But the facts of the incident will allow the impacted employees to understand what happened, and start to make sense of it. It allows them to experience it, not deny it.
In conclusion, I challenge us all, as consultants, to self-reflect on whether or not we find it difficult to name an event without using euphemisms, and if it does strike a chord, further examine why. Also remember that typically our interaction, which is time limited, focused, and educational in nature, is only the beginning of the recovery process for the employees we make contact with following an adverse incident at the workplace. They will have access to EAP counseling benefits for further assistance, and in most instances, support from friends and family. A plethora of people who are available for sugar coating the event with them. When, as a consultant, we can acknowledge and name an event, no matter how disruptive the event was, we are helping people return to work; return to life, and begin the process of moving forward.
Reference: Bradshaw, William (2015 October 10) Died, Passed Away or Passed. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-b-bradshaw/died-passed-away-or-passed_b_6240282.html
About the Author: Clare McCullough is a Licensed Professional Counselor, with a master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling from Spring Arbor University. She has predominantly worked in the field of Crisis Intervention, and is currently a telephonic clinician for the Productivity Assurance Call Center at R3 Continuum. She also sees clients for therapy at a private practice in Grand Rapids, MI.
