The intention of the Foundation’s new series awareness@work is to shed light on how leaders within business organizations today are responding to those impacted by a crisis in the workplace. Whether one person, (customer, employee, family member) or a group of people are experiencing trauma, many organizations are initiating change in how they respond.
Awareness of how the needs of distressed people can be met within the context of the workplace has risen dramatically with the evolution of Care and Special Assistance Teams throughout the world. Once cautioned against approaching a distressed survivor due to concerns over liability, many companies today encourage employees to contact them without fear, expressing sorrow and thereby showing true compassion toward the impacted individual.
This new series features comments by program leaders as to the changes they are experiencing and challenges for the future of their programs. Lisa Swartzwelder, Director, Shuttle Operations and Flight Administration of
a Fortune 500 Specialty Retailer addresses questions about how she is personally experiencing the shift in awareness in her professional life.
CVC: Is there anything else you want to say about the need for change?
LS: When I am leading change, it is onerous on me to thoroughly understand and put myself in the shoes of my audience. I can empower with collaboration, filling tool belts with resources, maps, technology, checklists that speak their language. I am excited about being a part of changing traditional ways of thinking and bias with “proving” that it is good to be good.
-Lisa Swartzwelder
Experienced practitioners of the Human Services Response™ models, like Lisa have lived the change that survivors of traumatic events have ushered in overall the past several years. As survivors speak out, laws have come about and changes in protocol have resulted—and yet there are still challenges.
Real change will come only from within; laws and regulations are useful, but sadly easy to flout (mock or show disdain).
-Jane Goodall, Primatologist and Anthropologist
In the 2009 crash of Continental Flight #3407, February 12, all forty-nine people on board the aircraft died when the aircraft crashed into a house during landing. The family members of the fiftieth victim, Doug Wielinski, who died when the plane hit his house destroying all its contents, were treated differently from those who were on the airplane. Five years after the crash, Karen Wielinski finally got her day in court when she and her four daughters presented their case. Doug’s death and his family’s subsequent law suit resulted in an amendment to the federal guidelines which govern who is entitled to receive services following a crash. Today, all people who are impacted by the crash, would be be treated equally.
Research as to the distress experienced by survivors of traumatic stress is needed to inform processes and procedures in advance of the way a family like Doug’s was treated. This would prevent unnecessary harm done—indeed the horse would be leading the cart, instead of the reverse. While the 1996 Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act covered all on the flight—the family of the “One on the Ground”, as Karen’s heartfelt book is named, suffered well beyond the loss of Doug and their family home.
…we will transform the anecdotal to analytics. We will be able to clearly define the financial and reputational costs of not deploying a compassionate response.
-Lisa Swartzwelder
Future research involving survivors of various types of traumatic losses, multiple industries, on an international level will lay the basis for future best practice. The Foundation has joined with Louisiana State University to create the Family Assistance Education & Research Institute (FAERI) for purposes of conducting and sharing academic research. Lisa is on the Business & Industry Advisory Board.
I am excited about being a part of changing traditional ways of thinking and bias with “proving” that it is good to be good.
Lisa Swatzwelder 
