STAGE-28

PSYCHOLOGICAL RISK ASSESSMENT

Stands for ‘Stress, Trauma, Assessment, Growth and Evaluation’ within 28 days

Is a practical alternative to the 28-day post-incident delay urged by NICE
Conforms to the Health & Safety (1999) Regulations risk assessment principles

Combines evidence-based and theoretically-grounded methods
Brings theory, knowledge and skills for use by peers

Offers encrypted data collection to compare outcomes with clinical therapies
Can be learned in accredited workshops of 1-5 days

Uses techniques successful in veteran, terrorist and mass-fatality incidents
Will contribute to research, practice and policy

Training

Accredited training workshops to become a facilitator are run regularly throughout the year.

RAIDS

A short 1-day training to meet the demands of the Health & Safety (1999) Regulations risk assessment, for mental health:

Identify the hazard

(predictors of PTSD)

Intervene

to eliminate or minimise the hazard

Monitor

to ensure the effect of the intervention

The course will teach students to identify known predictors of PTSD during a conversation soon after a critical incident. Five subscale scores are summed for a total that gets placed in High-, Medium- or Low-risk categories.

Group Crisis Intervention

A 2-day training workshop that teaches two large and two small group interventions for use in the early stages of the 28-day period:

Defuse

back-at-base small group assessment, information and support

Debrief

Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (powerful event group support)

Demobilise

Demobilisation (large operational group [<100] transition from scene to base)

Manage

Crisis Management Briefing (large civilian group information and support)

Traumatic Incident Reduction

A 5-day workshop that covers theory, practice and skill establishment in three techniques for reducing emotional charge.

Basic TIR:

Single, known incidents including
PTSD

Thematic TIR:

Unknown sequence of incidents including complex-PTSD

Unblocking:

Reduced distress on people, dilemmas, conditions and situations

Expanded Applications

A 4-day workshop that covers additional techniques compatible with the TIR techniques as a follow-up for more resolution on more long-standing issues including bereavement, loss and difficult relationships.

Life Stress Reduction

A 4-day workshop that describes longer-term projects for example, addictions and body-image. A case-planning protocol allows students to assess, prioritise and tackle an entire life-stress plan.

Data collection – Online portal for psychological assessments

A 1-day workshop for students to become familiar with a secure and encrypted online portal, and achieve competence in identity coding, data-input and collation. Demonstrations of annual (static) and periodic (dynamic) evaluations will be given with exercises to consolidate skills to complete the STAGE-28 programme.

The STAGE-28 Training Programme

All modules (17 days formal training) to be undertaken within six months. A team certified for mobilisation under the guidance of Dr John Durkin will be expected to measure standards of training, quality of effectiveness and ensure team competence. All phases of STAGE-28 have been tested in the field and will now undergo academic and clinical scrutiny to generate empirical data for research purposes.