OLYMPIA -- The Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) has begun a new support program in the Children's Administration (CA) to help workers cope with the emotional effects of critical incidents.

The Peer Support Team (PST) program includes a statewide network of CA staff. They are trained to support workers who are exposed to tragic incidents such as unexpected death, near-death, assaults, and threats to children, staff members, and other clients served by children’s services workers.

The program is very similar to those serving firefighters and law enforcement. The peer support is a voluntary service offered to staff in confidential sessions within 48 hours of the event.

"Child fatalities and serious injury cases often have a traumatic impact on our staff, affecting them emotionally, physically, and psychologically," said Toni Sebastian, a practice consultant with CA. She led a group of staff who developed the support team and the critical incident protocol.

"Social workers and others in 'helping professions' sometimes believe that they have to remain strong and stable in the face of any tragic incident. That is just not realistic. Our staff know the families and children we work with. When something tragic happens to them, or to one of our own staff, we feel shock and sadness, and grief. The focus of the program is to minimize the harmful effects of tragic incidents by providing consistent and predictable crisis intervention and peer support for our workers," she said.

The PST is separate from other formal, procedural reviews like a fatality or case review. Past fatality reviews, the Worker Safety Task Force created by House Bill 3122, and other oversight activities have recommended that CA have an internal support program for staff affected by critical incidents, according to Sebastian.

The PST includes CA social workers, supervisors, and program managers around the state. Team members completed an application and interview process, and received the support and high recommendation of their peers and supervisors.

Team members have been trained in critical incident debriefing specific to child welfare. A two-day training was provided by the Toronto Children's Aid Society (CAS). Toronto CAS has offered peer support debriefing to its staff for the past eight years. PST members offer peer support as part of their regular work duties. The PST is led by the CA Office of Risk Management.