Post-trauma stress: officer Wellbeing

Post confrontation[ Part 2 ]

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concerned about ‘contaminating’ the memory

process. In those situations, encourage everyone

involved not to rehash the event with others, but

rather go home and get a good night’s sleep to

help recover additional memory. Sleep helps

them achieve a calmer mental state, which in

turn helps them consolidate information into their

long-term memories. The next day, a second

interview can be conducted, and then they can

conduct their own informal debriefings with each

other. To prevent their memories from being

contaminated, instruct the participants not to

read the paper or watch the news.

After the first night’s sleep, an interview can

be conducted at the location, but it may be

necessary to help the participants separate

their emotions from their memories. Anticipate

that the interview might have to be stopped to

help an especially emotional person through the

tactical breathing process, because by returning

to the scene, the participants are exposed to

memory cues that facilitate their recall of how

the event unfolded. Objects that seem to be

inconsequential to people who were not involved

just might provide the missing link that brings all

the information together.

The day after the incident, agencies should

conduct a group ‘critical incident debriefing’.

Everyone involved in the incident should

attend. The idea of a group critical incident

debriefing is to ‘get back on the train’ and

derive specific memory cues from each other.

All this is not without its flaws. A process called

‘memory reconstruction’ is unavoidable in a

group debriefing. What happens is that some

participants reconstruct, or fill in their missing

pieces of memory with information learned from

other participants. The mind hates a vacuum, so

they might fill in the gaps and ‘remember’ it as if

it had actually happened to them.

Some degree of memory reconstruction is

inevitable, but the group debriefing is still the

best possible tool for giving participants accurate

information to help them remember, for helping

them learn from mistakes, and for helping them

on the path to returning to normal after a horrific

incident. Consider conducting a second debriefing

24–48 hours later. This allows participants to get

another night or two of sleep, which often provides

for further memory consolidation.

an informal debriefing can be a discussion that arises sPontaneously Post event, While a formal debriefing is organised and facilitated to ensure it helPs everyone.

By Richard Kay

Part one of this two-part article introduced

readers to the diagnostic criteria of post-

traumatic stress disorder (PSTD) and the range

of emotional reactions officers may experience

after a traumatic event. As discussed, while

officers may have little control over when

confrontations occur, they do have control over

how they respond to these events before, during

and after. This article concludes the discussion

by considering the debriefing process and

protocols to follow post-incident.

Debriefing

A debriefing is any post-event discussion

that assists officers to come to terms with

and learn from it. Hopefully, it helps to gain

closure so the event will not continue to cause

emotional distress. An informal debriefing can

be a discussion that arises spontaneously post

event, while a formal debriefing is organised and

facilitated to ensure it helps everyone.

There are two primary functions of a critical

incident debriefing:

1. It is needed to reconstruct the event from

the beginning to the end, to learn what was

done rightly/wrongly and to help develop

operational lessons.

2. It is a time to put everyone back together.

There might be memory loss, memory

distortion, irrational guilt and a host of other

factors that cloud the ability of the officers

to deal with everything that happened.

Debriefing is a tool to sort out these matters,

and to restore morale and unit integrity. It can

make lives healthier and sometimes it even

saves them.

The first objective is to capture and preserve

the event in the minds of the participants, so

the information can be dissected and everyone

can learn from what happened. The first step

in maximising memory retention is to have

everyone involved make a report immediately

after the occurrence. To get detailed information,

participants need to be kept calm and collected.

From the very beginning, the goal is to delink the

memory from the emotions. Initially, participants

should be removed from where the stressful

event took place, as there are many associations

there that can act as powerful stressors.

Sometimes, for legal purposes, investigators are

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043SECURITY SOLUTIONS

Make contact: Avoiding an officer after an

incident may make him feel he has done

something wrong. Sometimes peers are ordered

not to contact the officer so as not to damage

an investigation, but this leaves the officer feeling

alone and anxious. At a minimum, if the incident

cannot be discussed or others do not know what

to say, they should give the officer a handshake, a

hug, or an understanding nod. These nonverbal

gestures can be a powerful indication of support.

Avoid second guessing: No one was in the officer’s

shoes during the incident; no one saw it evolve

from his perspective. Others may think they

would have acted differently, but no one knows

for sure how they will act in a violent encounter

until they are actually in one. Do not second

guess another officer’s actions, and discourage

him from second guessing himself. He likely

had only milliseconds to make his decisions,

and usually on only partial information. Second

guessing could lead to dangerous hesitation the

next time around.

Share experience: Those who have been

in a similar critical incident should lend an

empathetic ear and share their experience. They

can help normalise how the officer is thinking,

feeling and acting. If the officer is having some

adverse reactions, it is particularly important to

emphasise that he is not crazy but is responding

normally to an abnormal and crazy event.

Officers that have had counselling after an

event can ease another officer’s concerns about

‘seeing a shrink’.

Watch humour: Black humour is traditionally used

as an effective coping mechanism in everyday

life. But after a critical incident, be sensitive to

the effect of humour on an involved officer.

Use restraint: Do not lionise the officer – he may

not feel heroic, especially if he had to take a

life. At the same time, do not dehumanise the

subject who forced the officer into responding –

especially if the officer had eye contact with the

subject as he was injured or dying, the officer

may see the subject in very human terms and

resent denigrating comments.

Encourage talking: Do not allow the officer to

withdraw from the world. When that happens,

intrusive thoughts about the incident tend to

become overwhelming. For legal reasons, it may

be best to avoid discussing details of an incident,

The first thing officers must understand is

their obligation to participate in a critical incident

debriefing. Unmanaged stress is a major factor

that can destroy officers and devastate their

families. PTSD is ‘the gift that keeps on giving’.

When officers are impacted by stress symptoms,

their families are also impacted and if it is left

unchecked, they will continue to be affected in

the years to come. One key tool to prevent PTSD

is the critical incident debriefing. There are always

those people who say something like ‘Debriefing?

I do not need a debriefing!’ But the debriefing is

not necessarily for them; it is for their colleague,

partner, spouse and their children.

It is important to let participants know that any

thoughts or reactions they experienced during a

critical incident debriefing are okay. Once they

realise that the physical and emotional responses

they experienced are normal, then they are more

likely to relax and open up, and these reactions

no longer have the power to hurt officers.

The most important objective of a debriefing

is to separate the memory from the emotions,

delinking the memory of the event from the

sympathetic nervous system arousal. Officers

need to make peace with that memory, so that it

does not haunt them. As the debriefing unfolds

and they work their way through the memory of

the event, know that anything and everything is

permitted, except anxiety.

Post-Incident Protocol

After surviving a force response encounter, many

officers are further traumatised in word and deed.

Because of the treatment they receive, they feel

betrayed and abandoned by their own people,

and the psychological injuries they experience

can hurt more than their physical injuries. Often,

fellow officers unwittingly inflict trauma because

they do not know how to appropriately relate to

a colleague who has been involved in a critical

incident.

Here is a post-event protocol that will heal

rather than harm:

First words: The initial response by peers and

command staff should be, ‘I am glad you are

safe’. This suggests concern, care and support

and very effectively eases the immediate

emotional trauma that the involved officer may

be experiencing.

the first thing officers must understand is their obligation to ParticiPate in a critical incident debriefing. unmanaged stress is a major factor that can destroy officers and devastate their families.

but without pressuring him, be ready to actively

listen and not judge while the officer unloads

about his emotions. A subject can potentially

leave psychological skeletons in an officer’s

emotional closet. Helping the officer unload

emotional garbage by encouraging him to talk

can be very beneficial. Talk over coffee, though,

not over alcohol.

Show respect: An officer surviving a threat to his

life deserves to be honoured with dignity and

respect, not in the manner of bitterness and

resentment. He has followed his training and

survived the most extreme of threats to carry

out the duty bestowed on him to ensure public

safety.

These are important and require an

openness and sensitivity that many officers find

challenging if not downright intimidating. There

is no hesitation is responding to an officer-

needs-assistance call on the street. Officers

will risk injury and even death to save another

person’s life. But when a response is needed

to an officer-needs-emotional-assistance call, it

is often a different matter. That is something to

think about, because responding appropriately

to that kind of call is sometimes exactly what is

needed.

Richard Kay is an internationally certified

tactical instructor-trainer, Director and Senior

Trainer of Modern Combatives, a provider of

operational safety training for the public safety

sector. For more information, please visit

www.moderncombatives.com.au

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