Evaluating trauma debriefing within the UK prison service
| Pages | 281-290 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JFP-09-2012-0018 |
| Published date | 18 November 2013 |
| Date | 18 November 2013 |
| Author | Sharon Ruck,Nicola Bowes,Noreen Tehrani |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Forensic practice |
Evaluating trauma debriefing within the UK
prison service
Sharon Ruck, Nicola Bowes and Noreen Tehrani
Sharon Ruck is a Forensic
Psychologist in Training at
National Offender
Management Service,
Cardiff, UK.
Nicola Bowes is a Forensic
Psychologist at Department of
Applied Psychology, Cardiff
Metropolitan University,Cardiff,
UK.
Noreen Tehrani is a Trauma
Psychologist at Faculty of
Applied Trauma Psychology,
Professional Development
Foundation, London, UK.
Abstract
Purpose – There has been wide debate around early interventions following traumatic exposures. Many of
the studies examining the effectiveness of debriefing have not been undertaken in a workplace setting for
which they were designed. The study was undertaken with prison staff and evaluated the debriefing
provided as part of a trauma support programme provided by the prison service. This study was designed
to evaluate the effectiveness and a programme of support for prison service staff following a traumatic
incident within a prison environment.
Design/methodology/approach – Prison staff exposed to a range of traumatic events were offered
debriefing. Measurements were taken soon after the incident and again one month later. The scores of
those receiving debriefing were compared with those who did not receive debriefing.
Findings – The results showed that the prison staff receiving debriefing showed a significant reduction in
their traumatic stress, anxiety and depression scores. There was no significant difference in the symptoms
of the non-debriefed group.
Research limitations//implications – The findings suggest that group-based well structured debrief
sessions can be useful in reducing symptoms of post-traumatic stress following exposure to critical
incidents in the workplace. The findings were accepted with the limitation that the groups were self-
selecting, a randomised control trial was not allowed for the purpose of this study due to ethical concerns.
Originality/value – The results suggest that there are benefits in undertaking group debriefing within an
organisational setting.
Keywords Traumatic stress, Debriefing, Prison service, Evaluation, UK
Paper type Viewpoint
Introduction
This study considers the impact of Critical Incident Debriefs (CID) as interventions in the
workplace to moderate or mitigate symptomatology associated with the development of
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following exposure to trauma. PTSD, according to the
American Psychiatric Organisation is; “[y] an anxiety problem that develops in some people
after extremely traumatic events, such as combat, crime, an accident or natural disaster”
(American Psychiatric Association, 2012). It has long been recognised that PTSD is an issue
which affects forensic inpatient populations (Spitzer et al., 2001) and prison populations
(Payne et al., 2008). It is also an issue which affects staff working with such populations as their
exposure to potentially traumatic events is increased because of the nature of their work and
the people with whom they work (Burke, 1994). Increasingly, organisations have recognised
their responsibility to protect staff from such events and to develop packages to support
employees who are at greater risk, or who have witnessed potentially traumatic events during
the course of their work, such events are often referred to as “critical incidents”.
Critical incidents can be defined as events or situations:
[y] that have sufficient emotional power to overcome the usual coping abilities of people working in
environments where some degree of exposure is expected (Mitchell and Bray,1990).
DOI 10.1108/JFP-09-2012-0018 VOL. 15 NO. 4 2013, pp. 281-290, CEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2050-8794
j
JOURNAL OF FORENSIC PRACTICE
j
PAGE 281
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