Consciousness@Work 42 – July 2024 – Communicating Emotional Safety During and Following a Crisis in the Workplace

The most powerful influence in overcoming the impact of psychological trauma seems to be the availability of a caregiver who can be blindly trusted when one’s only resources are inadequate.

– Bessel van der Kolk, M.D. Dutch Psychiatrist

    On July 24, 2024, FAERF held the second summer webinar, where another lesson on the International-Humanitarian Assistance Response Program (I-HARP)™ Practitioner Certificate was presented. The lesson, Communicating Emotional Safety, shows how employees who work for a company experiencing a crisis can validate primary and secondary survivors. The lesson presents basic crisis theory, illustrated by examples of survivors from workplace crises, such as shootings, transportation accidents, rig explosions, and multiple examples from crises in the workplace.

     The program features interview vignettes in which survivors feel validated in the aftermath of a crisis. It also includes examples of employees’ actions and words that increase their distress. In this article, we will highlight the crisis theory discussed in the lesson and a few quotes from survivor interview vignettes in the program.

When an individual is confronted with overwhelming fear, there is a loss of equilibrium (loss of control over one’s environment). This loss of control makes a person more susceptible to influence by others (those on the spot of the crisis) than during periods of stable functioning.

 – Gerald Caplan, M.D. “Father of Crisis Psychiatry”

Primary Survivors

    Validating primary survivors, individuals whose physical safety is at risk, is best accomplished by training employees who interact with survivors during a crisis response on the power of their words and actions. Mark, a primary survivor shown in Lesson Two, describes the terror he experienced the night American Airlines Flight 1420 crashed in Little Rock, Arkansas, on June 1, 1999, where 135 survived and 11 died. Mark describes his surprise at being met by the airline’s care team.

    But the most startling thing was the arrival of the care team. Two gracious people showed up, one with a notepad, obviously very, very under control and knowing what they were doing, obviously well-trained. They were doing what was prescribed… And from the time they showed up, I knew everything would be okay. I mean everything, not just physically, that I would survive. But that things would get handled.

   Hal, a second primary survivor featured in the lesson, survived an excursion accident while on a cruise line holiday, where his wife and a total of twelve died in March, 2006 in Arica, Chile. In the program, Hal, like Mark, describes how impressed he was with the men and women at the company, Celebrity Cruise Line, who took care of him when he lost his wife of forty years and in the bus accident, felt he had lost control of his life.

   While I was being wheeled back from the X-ray room, I got my first taste of Celebrity’s Care Team–their care and concern. The doctor and the nurse from the ship were there and two other people, a male and a female. They stayed with me all day and all night long the following day. I called them my guardian angels because if I ever needed anything, they were always there. The guy from Celebrity, I believe, was in charge of the whole thing, making all kinds of calls, and it felt good to know they were taking care of me.

During the disequilibrium phase of the crisis (loss of control), the individual is more susceptible to influence by others than when normal functioning returns. A relatively minor force will tip them toward or away from emotional/psychological health.

 – Gerald Caplan, M.D. 

Secondary Survivors

    For secondary survivors, who are the family members and loved ones of those who are in harm’s way, best practice shows that employee responders must provide information about their loved one, even when limited information is known. The training module features several examples of family members who reached out to the company that experienced the crisis, only to be mishandled because the company provided no information about the caller’s loved one.

    This was clear in interviews with family members whose loved ones died in the Colganair/Continental Airlines Flight 3407 crash in Buffalo, New York on February 12, 2009. Fifty people died upon impact when the aircraft hit a home on property adjacent to the airport, killing a man who lived in the house. The interviews consistently showed how family members who called the 800 number provided by the media were denied confirmation about their loved one’s involvement in the crash. While the media reported no survivors, the airline employees were not empowered to provide the names on the manifest.

       As the quote above implies, the family members of the Colganair/Continental Airlines Flight 3407 experienced a more complicated, extended recovery because of the mistakes made in the initial response by the company. Fortunately, the program shows an example where a mother was able to receive confirmation of her son’s involvement in an airline crash. Judy’s son Jonathan died in the Swissair Flight 111 crash on September 2, 1988, where all 229 onboard perished. Judy was able to get confirmation on the fact that her son was on the manifest, despite the fact that there was very limited information.

Two wonderful people, Sara and Jackson in Atlanta, were assigned to us, and they called. At that time, I knew they didn’t have to get involved in this pain; they had chosen to do it, and it was great pain. I mean, you know you can’t be with somebody like that (without feeling the pain). They were wonderful in getting information and so after that contact was established, they first called back and confirmed that Jonathan was indeed on the flight manifest and it wasn’t until the morning that they had confirmed that there were no survivors.

     Interviews with Judy confirmed the effectiveness of the airline’s process for covering the phone with the same employees for twenty-four hours during the acute response phase and maintaining a database where all communication with the family survivors is documented. Judy was impressed that she only told their story once.

I never had to explain who I was, they knew, and if one of them had talked with us or we had asked for something, the other one knew it when they changed the shift. I don’t know when they ever slept because they were there anytime day and night that we called and they called as often as we wanted them to call us, they did. And for somebody, it was so hard to speak it and talk of it but never had to say, “I am Judy Wilson, the mother of Jonathan,” they knew that they (also) knew exactly the information that was given to me, they knew where things were, what we had been told and that was very comforting to know I would never have to explain my connection.

The core experiences of psychological trauma are disempowerment and disconnection from others. Recovery, therefore, is based upon the empowerment of the survivor and the creation of new connections.

 – Judith Herman, M.D.

     Ten years later, Judy was asked to describe how she felt about the assistance she received from the airline employee responders, both by the telephone responders and the face-to-face care team. Her comments illustrate how employees who interact with survivors, when they are helpless and dependent, begin the empowerment process early and set the stage for long-term healing.

But then, having people who chose to come alongside us, we will always be connected. We experienced something together that no one else did. We have a bond that will never be broken because we endured something together. I didn’t have a choice in it; they did, and so their caring for me and choosing to help us was very powerful to me and gave us strength.

Upcoming Webinar

    August 28, 2024, FAERF will hold the third webinar of the Summer Series, where the Practitioner Certificate of the International-Humanitarian Assistance Response Program (I-HARP)™ is being previewed for members. Level Three of the Helper’s Hierarchy, “Affiliation” will be featured, where survivor vignettes will illustrate why this need is significant in supporting survivors and how employee responders can facilitate survivors in being able to make connections with persons of their choice. 

For more information about the Certificate, click HERE.

See the FAERF.org/events page to view the upcoming Webinars and Member Partner Meetings.