Resource Articles

Tragic events continue to fill our newsfeeds. News like this can take a toll on our well-being. How do we cope with such chaos, devastation, and destruction? Vanderbilt's Work/Life Connections-EAP offers ways to cope if you or a colleague are having difficulty during these trying times.

When there are challenging cases that impact caregiver psychological well-being, Vanderbilt offers a variety of support services for faculty and staff.

When a colleague is impacted by an unanticipated outcome or challenging case, Peer Support Teams within a workgroup proactively offer emotional support to affected peers.

Adverse Event/Unexpected Outcome Support

​by Chad A. Buck, Ph.D. Clinical Psychologist Work/Life Connections–Employee Assistance Program

When a person experiences, witnesses, or is confronted with an event or situation that involves actual or threatened death, serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others, he or she can experience fear, helplessness, and horror.  PTSD results when effects of exposure to a traumatic event persist beyond one month following the event. Please answer "Yes" or "No" if you have been exposed to or witnessed a traumatic event and have engaged in or experienced any of the following over the past month on a fairly consistent basis.

​Work/Life Connections-EAP coordinates Crisis Intervention Services and Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Services for the VUMC community. Definition: A Critical Incident is "any event which has the potential to produce unusual or distressing emotional symptoms such as an accident, injury, death, disaster, threat or act of violence, or other traumatic event at the workplace."

It is not uncommon for healthcare or emergency workers to request some type of critical incident stress management services following an acute incident which they label as being particularly stressful for them. The good news is that such professionals are usually very resilient.