Digital Handbook

Making It Happen

Optional ideas informed by the EuroPris Staff Wellbeing Expert Group to help you explore the topic further and adapt approaches to your own prison service.

• Develop organisation wide Post Incident Care plans to ensure consistency, standardisation including clear timelines, roles and responsibilities (e.g., clear triggers, documented protocols outlining immediate and follow up actions).

• Use active monitoring during the first month after a potentially traumatic event (PTE) to tailor support, including structured check ins (e.g., supervisor follow ups aligned for example with UK’s National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE) guidance, counselling when indicated).

• Provide structured debriefs after critical incidents to aid processing, normalise reactions and reduce isolation, including facilitated discussions (e.g., team debriefs led by trained staff/psychologists/ psychological first aid).

• Offer tiered critical incident stress support to reduce acute stress, including staged models (e.g., Ireland’s Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) approach with preparation, immediate post-incident support, and a continuum of car).

• Ensure rapid access to psychological crisis intervention to minimise harm, including clear referral pathways (e.g., identified crisis response team self-referral, supervisor-referral, and service-initiated deployment of a Psychological Crisis Intervention Team like in Croatia).

• Activate specialised crisis response for severe incidents, including group briefings and individual interventions (e.g., Mobile Crisis Intervention Team in Lithuania).

• Encourage supervisors to check in personally to demonstrate support, including confidential follow ups (e.g., one to one wellbeing reviews after traumatic shifts with clear next steps).

• Provide onsite psychological support to increase accessibility, including allocated work time appointments (e.g., workplace psychologist, supervisors offering free individual counselling when concerns are disclosed or observed in Hungary).

• Offer temporary adjustments to duties during recovery, including modified environment, workloads or shift changes (e.g., redeployment to lower intensity roles).

• Tailor recovery plans to individual needs, including collaborative action planning (e.g., agreeing step wise return plans).

• Strengthen team and peer support during recovery, to build mutual resilience including structured group reflection (e.g., peer support circles, informal check-ins, team gatherings).

• Provide supervision spaces for deeper processing, to reduce cumulative strain including external group sessions (e.g., reflective practice groups in Slovakia).