PSYCHOLOGICAL FIRST AID AND POST INCIDENT STRESS DEBRIEF FACILITATOR TRAINING | 5 DAY OPEN COURSE | Live Webinar (7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th June 2021)

This course will run on the following dates: 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th June 2021

This is a fully accredited Level 3 Qualification with HABC

It is uncertain times for us all and we need to remember that it is vitally important that we protect the health, safety and well being of our workforce. This is especially important for key workers who are working on the front line in order to keep all of us safe. Our Post Incident Stress Debrief Facilitator & Psychological First Aid training is now being delivered via live webinar sessions to NHS Trusts and a large number of organisations across the United Kingdom to ensure we are safeguarding and supporting our heroes wherever and whenever we can.

HASAWA allows the government to issue regulations, guidance and Approved Codes of Practice (ACOPs) for employers. These set out detailed responsibilities for the employer in every aspect of workplace health and safety, from working safely with computers, to stress and hazardous chemicals. Since the early 1970’s industry has been focused on incidents and accidents and how that relates to time and profits lost. One area that has been overlooked somewhat is the psychological aspect of work related incidents and how that can lead to work related stress, absence from work and over time, burnout. There is currently a need for suitable, evidence-based training for managing problems and disorders related to stress in primary health care settings as well as across all industry sectors. Agencies who work in post conflict and natural disaster settings are increasingly interested in mental health care and in today’s multi-tasking environments where there are increasing demands on performance within tightening pools of resource, stress levels can get dangerously high. 

The World Health Organisation prompted the development of a system of managing problems related to stress and produced guidance on psychological first aid and the structured debriefing of those affected by stress situations and symptoms. Those guidelines are incorporated and indeed are the driving force behind this training. The training will embrace the theory that each individual has individual levels of resilience, strengths and weaknesses and will incorporate theoretical frameworks based on current thinking including:

Psychological debriefing: The promotion of ventilation by encouraging the person to briefly but systematically recount perceptions, thoughts and emotional reactions experienced during a recent, stressful event (WHO, 2010).

Psychological first aid (PFA): Humane, supportive response to a fellow human being who is suffering and who may need support. It entails basic, non-intrusive pragmatic care with a focus on listening but not forcing talk, assessing needs and concerns, ensuring that basic needs are met, encouraging social support from significant others and protecting from further harm (WHO, 2010). 

Stress management: Psychological treatments that use cognitive or behavioural techniques (e.g. relaxation, stress inoculation training) that do not focus on the traumatic event (Bisson & Andrew, 2007).

Symptoms of acute stress: Psychological symptoms in the first month after exposure to potentially traumatic events. 

This training also introduces a range of practical techniques that individuals can use to deal with stress and reduce it to a manageable level as well as providing a framework understanding Post Incident Stress Debriefing (PISD) and the structure of the group format. 

This training has been separated into learning hours and the first 12 hours of learning focuses on identifying and managing stress and the effects of stress upon people at work and in their own lives.  The following 18 hours is aimed at those wishing to facilitate post incident debrief sessions.  

Programme Content

Psychological First Aid and Post Incident Debriefer Facilitator Training is delivered to groups of up to 12 learners.  It is accredited through Highfields Awarding Body for Compliance (HABC) and is available as a 1-5 day course (42h 45mins).

The programme will be delivered by an adult mental health Psychologist who works across the UK as an educator of people in clinical, care and public services settings who has experiences include Post Incident Debriefing for The Scottish Prison Service, Criminal Justice Social Work, Forensic Services and Adult mental health community based services. 

Programme objective and content

The aims of this programme are to facilitate an appreciation of the complex range of symptoms that a person can experience when stressed whilst also examining the reasons why people experience and deal with stress differently.

It will then enable the learners to recognise and manage their own stress through a range of validated techniques that build both resilience and improve coping. The programme will also support the development of a range of knowledge skills that will allow learners to offer aid in critical incidents and then to facilitate the debriefing of those that may be stressed from involvement with traumatic events.

This programme includes content on: understanding stress and an individual’s response to stressful situations, coping with stress, stress at work, emotional intelligence, mindfulness, stress debriefing, communication skills, therapeutic group work skills, the role of the cognitive triad and negative thinking, psychological first aid and effective reporting.

By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

• Define what stress is
• Explain what is meant by stress and work-related stress.
• Identify the symptoms of stress
• Explain the typical causes of stress in the workplace and at home.
• Undergo a stress risk assessment.
• Understand the importance of controlling stress and know how to cope with stress when it arises
• Identify what changes can be made in the workplace and at home in order to deal with the causes and effects of stress
• Understand more about stress debriefing and how that can help
• Experience what it feels like to be involved in a post incident stress debrief and how as individuals people can safeguard each other

This training also introduces a range of practical techniques that individuals can use to deal with stress and reduce it to a manageable level as well as providing a framework for the understanding of Post Incident Stress Debriefing (PISD) and the structure of the group format.

The course runs from 09:30 – 16:30 daily.

Full course content can be viewed here.