How 'psychological first aid' can help employees manage the stress of current events

When someone turns on the news or scrolls through their social media feed, it's likely they'll encounter the latest crisis or disaster that can send them into panic and distress. 

Over the last several years, Americans have experienced "cascading collective crises," says Jeff Gorter, VP of crisis response services at R3 Continuum. The organization provides immediate crisis care to employees and businesses during disasters and other traumatic events, and guides employers on best practices for responding appropriately and offering the right resources.  

"Our specific focus is how to support organizations when a crisis strikes," Gorter says. "Employees are looking to their workplace as a source of support and employers are also being judged according to their corporate responsibility. Are you responding to these things? Are you offering resources? Are you getting that these things have power for us as individuals?" 

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At R3, their team of trained mental health professionals provides immediate "psychological first aid" for those who have experienced a traumatic event firsthand. For example, Gorter was most recently sent to Maui to help employees displaced by wildfires. His goal is to validate an employee's response to the event, in order to help them move forward feeling like they have the coping skills and the support they need from their employer and others. 

"Typically, our services are a single session — many people feel they've learned something about themselves and their company and community," Gorter says. "That is post-traumatic growth and it's the thing we're looking to promote following these instances."  

Gorter shared why employers need to consider crisis care in the event of an immediate disaster, as well as why simple acts like checking in with employees on how they're doing can help establish trust and promote healing. 

What is psychological first aid, and how can it support mental health in the workplace? 
There are a lot of mental health professionals who are motivated by the impact of an event. They want to be able to help. But because we're talking about providing these services in a business context, we have specifically trained our network of around 7,000 providers across the U.S., not just in evidence-based best practices for psychological first aid, but also in understanding the business objectives, the leadership positioning and corporate responsibility so that the business itself is responding in an appropriate way and providing resources following this tragic event, whatever it might be, to help out. 

We respond 2,000-3,000 times per month across the U.S. to a whole range of events that may have a traumatic or potentially traumatic impact. It could be a bank robbery, a factory accident, an active shooter or natural disaster, but also, even something like the passing of an employee from a heart attack or an automobile accident. These can have a tremendous impact on that work group of which that person was a part. 

When you arrive at a business that's experiencing a crisis or processing a tragedy, what is the process of providing this type of care? 
Our goal, if I were to boil it down, would be validation: Allowing people to just simply talk about it, to process it and to help them understand that what they're experiencing makes sense. Then we help them understand their reactions. For example, if I'm experiencing a sort of a roller coaster of emotions — I'm going from feeling angry, to confused, to frightened, to feeling nothing at all — that could lead me to misinterpret that and say, maybe I'm not strong enough. Maybe I'm not handling it. Maybe I'm just going crazy. But you are reacting in the way that all of humanity reacts. And that can be helpful, because that then allows them to think about the next right step. 

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Once they're in that state, where they've been reassured, we're able to share with them effective coping skills, as well as promote the resources that their employer is offering, perhaps through their employee assistance program, or through their HR benefits. The vast majority of them will not need additional services beyond that. There are some individuals for whom the event may be uniquely distressing, or they need assistance at a deeper level, and so we would triage them and we would help them get connected to their EAP, for example, to utilize those services. 

There are a lot of distressing events happening in the news and within our communities these days — what advice can you offer to employers for supporting and acknowledging the stress employees may feel? 
Over the last three years, we have dealt with COVID, wildfires, active shooters, outbreaks of armed conflict in Ukraine and in the Middle East, and not to mention, the things that happen uniquely and specifically to people's worksites or communities. It's cumulative stress. The current workforce is saying, Why aren't you offering crisis care on site? The expectation is, this is the responsible thing for an employer to do. And what employers are finding is that when they do that, it reinforces employee loyalty. 

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Don't underestimate the value of a simple act of kindness. Reach out and encourage your team to reach out to each other with messages of care, of compassion, of support. Simply giving each other grace and space has tremendous power. Savvy leaders that provide resources, like on-site counseling following an event, that tap into their EAP, that provide caring messages to their employees and present in a corporately responsible way, are creating that culture of health and a culture of well-being.