Early Intervention Following Trauma

a controlled longitudinal study at Royal Mail Group

The British Occupational Health Research Foundation (BOHRF) commissioned this research to investigate safe and effective trauma management practices within organisations. It includes evidence on the effectiveness of specific mechanisms for the provision of support for organisations whose employees experience serious incidents at work.

Over a two-year period, 815 Royal Mail Group workers were identified as having been exposed to a potentially traumatic incident and then tracked for a 13 month period. The results indicate that the interventions developed by RMG are both safe and effective in relaying messages about trauma. It also shows that workers who perceive organisational support as high, had lower symptom levels and lower absence at 12 months following the trauma.

The advantages of the RMG approach is that it is relatively simple yet structured and can be implemented in many different work settings. An approach such as this can be the basis for an organisation to develop effective trauma management practices.