Pre-Trauma Programme for Network Rail
The Rail Industry had been traditionally poor at preparing train drivers who go through the trauma of a fatality. The most general method of supporting drivers was waiting until trauma occurred and then offering counselling.
We conducted in-depth interviews with drivers who had been through fatalities to speak about their experiences, find out what had helped and what more could be done to help, especially ‘up-stream,’ ie was there something more radical and effective we could do for all drivers as part of their development which could help if a traumatic incident occurred in the future?
We designed the pre-trauma programme which helped all drivers understand how each of them, as individuals, would respond to a traumatic event. This used a ‘real-life’ scenario, built from the genuine experience of train drivers, overlaid with the Kubler-Ross ‘stages of trauma’ model, to allow each driver to see the wider picture of trauma and help them see how they as individuals would progress through this and what would be the best source of support for each individual.