When our community is left reeling, we’re there.
In the wake of critical incidents, Lifeline Northern Beaches, Mosman to Kirribilli provides responsive emotional support to community members through our community critical incident response.
This trauma-informed framework is designed to:
- reduce immediate distress
- support emotional safety
- mitigate the risk of longer-term psychological harm
We deliver community critical incident response in two ways.
Face-to-face wellbeing check-ins
Accessible support to individuals by trained Lifeline counsellors and crisis supporters in community settings.
These check-ins are intended to stabilise acute distress, support emotional safety, and connect individuals with ongoing support and appropriate referral pathways where needed. We’ve delivered face-to-face wellbeing check-ins to members of the public after the Manly shark attack, in the wake of the Westfield Bondi Junction stabbing attack, and to school communities following the sudden death of a student.
Psychological first aid
Early intervention for individuals and groups exposed to more direct or sustained trauma.
Typically delivered within the first three months following a critical incident, these adapted single-session interventions use eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) principles to support the brain’s natural processing of traumatic events. Psychological first aid aims to lower the likelihood of traumatic exposure developing into longer-term trauma responses, including PTSD. We’ve delivered psychological first aid to first responders involved in the Dee Why and Manly shark attacks, and to Lifeline counsellors and crisis supporters who assisted the community following the Bondi Junction stabbing attack.
Our community critical incident response is a clinically governed, scalable model of community trauma response, ensuring individuals and communities receive timely, evidence-based support that promotes safety, resilience, recovery, and long-term psychological wellbeing.