INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS FOR CRISIS INTERVENTION AFTER DISASTER WORK.

Over the past 10 years, researchers and employers have shown an increased interest in the psychological problems that can be experienced by first-line disaster workers. This article briefly reviews available research in the area, and then illustrates the increased management concern over these problems by describing recent developments in the UK Police Service. Disaster contingency planning in this Service has come to place particular emphasis upon the provision of crisis intervention after potentially traumatic disaster work experiences: early, brief, problem-focused treatment, which aims to restore distressed individuals to a precrisis level of functioning. The possible benefits of such early intervention are considered, and then attention is turned to the types of information required for guiding intervention in specific cases. Beyond basic information relating to current symptoms and coping activities, it will be useful to determine what experiences from before, during and after the disaster work are implicated in the person's current disturbance, and how the person is modeling these experiences. It will also be important to identify those contemporaneous, psychological appraisal processes that are sustaining the disturbance: individuals who are left to adjust ‘naturally’ typically pay little or no attention to these powerfully disturbing, but in principle modifiable appraisal processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]