Assisting and supporting recovery from a multiple casualty event: Principles and Practices for Organisational Psychology - Christchurch

In recent years there has been an increased awareness of the risk and impact of critical incidents on employee health and wellbeing, business recovery, leadership adaptation, and resilience in the face of immediate impact and response and ongoing community and staff challenges.

Events that involve multiple casualties involving employees as victims who are ill, injured or are fatalities; who are witness to and impacted by events that have occurred in their communities; who are first responders; and/or those involved in recovery responsibilities and operational management have a variety of health and work consequences – from short- through long-term.

An Organisational Psychologist can play an important role in support, advice, and assistance from response through recovery – at individual, team, and strategic level that reduces risk of harm and increases adaptation and resilience. This workshop builds on lessons learned from recent events, and the impact of those events on individuals, organisations, and communities – The Christchurch earthquakes 2010-2011, the Christchurch Mosque shootings 2019, Cyclones Hales and Gabrielle 2023, and the Mt Maunganui landslide 2026 to name a few. We will cover the following using a framework that clarifies opportunity, value, and the specialist knowledge Organisational Psychology training can bring to enterprises, groups and individuals impacted by these types of events:

• The role of an Organisational Psychologist in staff and business support
• Types of events, features and risks
• Principles of Critical Incident recovery
• Post-event response needs
• Post-event response challenges
• Establishment and role of Psychosocial Support systems
• Using a Trauma Informed approach and mitigation of trauma risk
• Leadership impact and support
• Role of community engagement, social media, and recovery pathways

Jonathan is a Chartered Organisational Psychologist currently based in Napier/Hastings. He started his career in the 1990’s as a Psychologist with the New Zealand Police, where his role included occupational health management and research, critical incident response, and provision of specialist professional advice and training on staff health and wellbeing. He has been working in private practice since 2002, and this work has included direct advice and guidance to organisational clients and employers regarding staff support and critical incident management and emergency response across a variety of industries and areas of the motu including the Christchurch Earthquakes 2010-2011, the Seddon (Wellington) earthquake 2013, the Kaikoura earthquake 2016, the Christchurch Mosque shootings 2019, the Covid pandemic 2020-2021,and Cyclones Gabrielle and Hale 2023 among other events. Jonathan is a Fellow of the New Zealand Psychological Society and is currently undertaking his PhD in disaster response volunteering at Massey University.