1. Guidelines for psychosocial support for uniformed service organizations (USO)
_ Hans te Brake, PhD 12th European Conference on Traumatic Stress Vienna 2-5 June 2011

2. A standard for the best psychosocial care for USO personnel
to prevent differences in psychosocial care between organizations
to prevent differences in psychosocial care within organizations

3. Commitment from relevant organizations
Ambulance
Fire brigade
Police
Ministry of defence
Royal Dutch Water Life Saving Association
GPs
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Netherlands Society of Occupational Medicine
In addition: the Dutch Red Cross, social counselors, Dutch Victim Care, Veteran care, The Netherlands Press Council, Association of Netherlands Municipalities

4. Guideline development
Specific methodology
Systematic literature research
Best-practices
Consensus among experts
Authorisation (commitment)
Project- and steering group
Focus groups (multidisciplinary)
Test of practicality (mono disciplinary)
evidence based

5. Resilience as a vantage point
Most people are able to recover after experiencing a shocking incident, people are resilient.
Centralized are the uniformed servicemen and their ability to ‘bounce back’
However, for this to happen a supportive context is needed, promoting the use of peoples resilience:
Provide practical help and information
Show empathy
A timely detection of psychopathology and proper referral to professional help is essential 5

6. Stepped care model Applicable to all uniformed service organizations
(based on Gersons, 2005)
Applicable to all uniformed service organizations
Leaves room for interpretation and context-specific implementation

7. Peer support Translation of the ’supportive context’ within the USO
People working in an USO often prefer (direct) colleagues for talking about work-related (shocking) incidents: colleagues are accessible, and can provide a low-threshold access
Peer support is already common practice (albeit in very diverse ways!)
Colleagues (and their supervisors) play an important role in the timely identification of those in need for professional psychosocial care 7

8. Peer support: 4 steps 55 recommendations
1. detection
2. deployment peer support
3. delivering peer support
4. advise for referral
monitoring by coordinator / team leader
55 recommendations
Uniformed servicemen, peer supporters, team leaders, management 8

9. Discussion Key accomplishments of guidelines for USO:
multidisciplinary agreement on
and organisation-wide adherence to
specific recommendations
regarding the best possible psychosocial support
for uniformed services.

10. Thank you for your attention.
Hans te Brake