Psychological Hard Hats

I have recently been working with an organisation who are developing peer-support communication skills, and having completed two sessions with them, learning about how challenging their work-lives became as a result of extreme psychological trauma rather than physical, I was intrigued to explore how workplaces have approached this in the past and how they are now shifting towards greater awareness of psychosocial risks.

Of course, stick with me to find out how paddling is the answer to most of this 😉

The model (above) is in development so please feel free to comment if you think I am missing something. As I write I am already considering tweaks.

On the top line we see the traditional pathway for managing risk focussed around physical risk management, and there are a huge range of safe practice training courses relative to the industries involved. Most industries also have a health & safety manager who looks at workplace risks and mitigates as necessary under this section of the model.

Staying on the top line, we move to the right where something has gone wrong. This is a reactive area where it is necessary to provide medical support after something has gone wrong. So First Aid is the most obvious aspect here but I could also have noted things like the provision of fire extinguishers etc in the workplace as an ‘after the event’ intervention.

Now dropping to the bottom line we enter the area that is most interesting when dealing with psychological trauma. From my own experience the pathway ought to look as I have depicted with some form of wellbeing training (and of course other mitigations for psychosocial risk). This section should also include how an employer provides the tools to deal with hazards in the same way as, for example, they provide a hard hat on a building site. I will come back to this area as this is where I see the biggest gaps in industry.

On the right I have highlighted Mental Health First Aid training, although employers also have other reactive policies and systems such as Employee Assistance Programmes, Trauma Incident Management and Suicide Intervention Training. If I am honest, there is a heavy emphasis on protecting the organisation ‘after the event’ rather than mitigating risk before.

On the whole employers and other organisations are improving in the development of wellbeing programmes and training. Recent budget constraints placed on our public services, however, will inevitably see these being eroded as other priorities take over. It’s a real concern that those who need it the most are likely to have it withdrawn first when the squeeze kicks in.

This view of psychosocial risk management is a key component placing paddling into the wellbeing agenda in my opinion. As I have often said, paddlers (like many outdoor enthusiasts) tend to see their activity as a way to build and maintain mental health resilience (even if they don’t express it like that). They are really good at filling the ‘management of psychosocial risk’ space. I know several paddling providers have also started to add Mental Health First Aid training into their skills base too, making them even more capable in this area as they start to fulfil the reactive part of this too.

Going right back to the point about psychological trauma and the impact that has had on people who suffered in the past. It’s too late to provide psychological hard hats to those with debilitating and lifelong PTSD, depression and anxiety – but it is not too late to define what a psychological hard hat looks like and start handing them out to those at risk. I genuinely feel that taking part in outdoor activity, especially paddle sports, supported by like-minded people is a pretty good addition to the ‘hard hat’ market. I realise it’s not going to stop a psychological building collapse crushing you, but if a only few bricks fall in your direction, it might just save your life.