At Green Light PBS, our commitment to providing high-quality, compassionate care is paramount. This commitment extends to ensuring our staff are fully supported when dealing with challenging incidents. We are pleased to have been able to enroll some of our Positive Behaviour Support team, Physical Intervention team and management team onto comprehensive training in Post-Incident Support, led by Nick Barratt of Barratt Behaviour Change Consultancy. 

The training focused on two key components of Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM): Defusing and Debriefing. Building on initial defusing skills (immediate, short-term support), the core of the module centres on the Debriefing process. 

This formal, structured approach to post-incident support is a strategic investment in our staff’s well-being and professional capacity.

• Staff Resilience: Research consistently shows that social support is a critical protective factor following traumatic workplace events. By providing a structured, supportive process, we are actively promoting the emotional processing and recovery of our staff, mitigating the risk of burnout.
• Quality of Service: As the training materials highlight, looking after staff is not only ethically right, but it also directly increases their capacity to deliver high quality support. Our investment in this system ensures that our team remains resilient, focused, and equipped to provide the best possible service to the people we support.

Our team enjoyed how interactive the training was with a range of activities that involved role-play and practising the techniques with one another, allowing them to receive valuable feedback from peers and from Nick. They enjoyed exploring the techniques and styles involved in delivering the defusing and debriefing stages and how these could be adapted and individualised. 

Research Foundation

The training content and approach are based on the Staff Resilience And Well being Project (STRAW): Feasibility study of Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM), an active research initiative focused on supporting staff in learning disability adult social care services.

• Research Link: NIHR STRAW Project (2019-2024)

Nick can be be contacted via LinkedIn or his website

Chloe Brindley

Senior Behaviour Analyst, UKBA(cert)