Intervention > Critical Incident Management and Response


What is Critical Incident Management and Response?
ITIM offers organisations a range of strategies to manage risk in the event of a critical incident. These strategies are targeted to meet your business and individual needs at any time.

Procedure and Policy Development
ITIM can help you define procedures that deal with the emotional effects of a tragedy and maximise the performance of your personnel in the event of a crisis.

Critical Incident Training
The more knowledge available to people before a crisis, the less likely they will be traumatised by their experience. With an increasing emphasis on organisational health and safety, ITIM Critical Incident Training can be used to limit exposure and maximise employee return to work and productivity.

Psychological Assessment
ITIM uses psychological assessment (1) proactively, to identify staff likely to demonstrate resilience and use appropriate and proper urgency in crisis situations; and (2) during crisis recovery, to screen for inordinate distress and distinguish individuals who are experiencing event related difficulties.

Peer Support
ITIM works with organisations to identify and train suitable staff members to support and refer fellow workers with difficulties before they impact on well-being and productivity.

Immediate Response and Follow-up
ITIM is dedicated to providing a Critical Incident Response service that is timely, comprehensive and tailored to meet the immediate and emerging needs of our client organisations and their people 24 hours, 7 days a week.

Disaster Recovery
Since 1960, ITIM has offered expertise, common sense and compassion to thousands of disaster-affected Australians. Dedicated ITIM personnel responded to people affected by the Ash Wednesday and Canberra Bushfires, the Longford gas disaster, the tragedies in Queen Street and Hoddle Street and Port Arthur, and supported staff in many organisations across Australia after the Bali tragedy

HR Restorative Strategies
ITIM can assist you in a corporate review after an incident to assess the effectiveness of related policies and procedures. As part of this critique ITIM can tailor Critical Incident Training that addresses any identified workplace needs.

How does it work?
No two people will respond to a crisis in the same way. The same applies to organisations. ITIM appreciates the uniqueness of all people and our client organisations to which they belong. Critical Incident Management and Response works by tailoring best practice procedures to address Pro-Active, Preventative, Recovery and Restorative Strategic needs within your organisation. Call ITIM today to inquire how we can prepare, inform, support and facilitate your recovery from a critical incident.

Is it for You?

Critical incidents can adversely affect people who are competent and experienced professionals. Critical incidents can occur at any time or place. In the workplace, they are usually sudden events that cause staff to experience unusually strong emotional reactions that may interfere with their mental and physical state and ability to perform at work.

Examples of critical Incidents
• Serious injury to, or death of staff or public
• Physical, sexual or psychological threat, including assault, robbery, verbal abuse, intimidation and hostage situations.
• Unexpected exposure to dead bodies or body parts
• Events that seriously threaten the lives of workers
• Exposure to shocking or horrifying circumstances
• Motor vehicle and machinery accidents
• Cumulative or on-going job related stressors.
• Fires, explosions, chemical spills
• Terrorism and related threats
• Destruction of work environment due to a natural disaster
• Deadly diseases and food contaminations

In order to contain risk and to discharge their duty of care, organisations can ask ITIM Australia to help them prepare for, and recover from, critical incidents.

What are the Benefits?
ITIM Critical Incident Management & Response strategies are designed to ensure the stability and continuity of your workforce in the event of a crisis. The range of benefits to managers and staff within workplaces include:
• Maximising the performance of managers during a critical incident
• Timely employee return to work and continued productivity
• Early detection and treatment of post-trauma disorders
• Increased employee morale and improved workplace relations
• Minimisation of costs associated with absenteeism, shutdowns, compensation and staff turnover.

Each year five per cent of Australia’s working population experiences a work-related injury. Almost half of all injured people apply for workers’ compensation and one third of them take more than 10 days off work. 60% of injured people are men; and mining followed by transport, storage, construction, agriculture, forestry, fishing and manufacturing are the most affected employment areas.” (ABS 2003)

Why Choose ITIM?
As one of Australia’s largest human service organisations, ITIM understands that care should be timely, flexible, and comprehensive and tailored to meet the immediate and emerging needs of organisations and their people. ITIM Australia offers clients a menu of multi-skilled resources and responsive services that distinguish ITIM from all other providers of crisis management.

ITIM Australia is distinguished from other providers of Critical Incident Management in that it:

• Guarantees a response to requests within 15 minutes by telephone 24 hours, 7 days.
• Provides face-to-face crisis consultation, counselling and support within two hours
• Is committed to delivering crisis intervention based on current best practice principals and procedures.
• Has a long history of responding to major disasters in Australia
• Responded to over 500 critical incidents affecting Australian organisations during 2003.
• Is National, with Metropolitan and Regional capability
• Has staff in over 200 office locations around Australia
• Is an Australian and not for profit organisation
• Has broad industry experience in the delivery of crisis response
• Employs and retains highly qualified and professional specialists with extensive experience in responding to critical and traumatic events

Training Workshops
The more knowledge available to people about what to expect and what to do before a crisis, the less likely they will be traumatised by their experience. With an increasing emphasis that organisations are placing on health and safety, Critical Incident Training can be used to limit exposure, alter the type of exposure, decrease surprise and the unexpected and maximise employee return to work and productivity. ITIM can tailor Critical Incident Training as a Pro-active strategy to prepare employees, and also as a Restorative strategy to promote recovery and facilitate adaptive performance.

What will it Cost?
The cost for ITIM’s services varies depending upon the service being selected and if it is being purchased in combination with other ITIM programs. ITIM services organisations throughout metropolitan and regional Australia. Contact ITIM on freecall 1800 337 068 for a listing of services and associated costs. ITIM is a 100 per cent Australian organisation.

Book an Appointment
To book an appointment, telephone ITIM on freecall 1800 337 068. The receptionist will ask you a few questions about the types of services you are interested in before connecting you with an ITIM consultant who will best meet your needs.

You can also book an appointment online by emailing itim@itim.com.au.

Email an Expert
For more specialist information on this service, email an ITIM expert at itim@itim.com.au. ITIM has specialists around Australia who will promptly reply to your query. In your email, please include the area you wish to find out more about and name of the town/city and Australian State in which you are based. This is to ensure the expert who replies to your query is located in your area. ITIM abides by privacy regulations and will not disclose your personal details to anyone or place your contact details on the ITIM marketing list unless you specifically request to be added to it.