School staff wellbeing after conflict, violence, emergency, or accident

You might be exposed to emergencies, violence, death of a student or staff member, conflict at work or natural disasters. This can affect your mental health and wellbeing.

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When there is an accident or emergency

When you start working in a school, it is important that you are informed about:

  • Where to find trained first-aiders
  • Who your fire wardens are
  • The emergency evacuation procedures for your work location
  • Where fire extinguishers are located, when they can be used and who is authorised to use them
  • The different alarm signals used in the school and what they mean
  • Security lockdown procedures for the school.

Each workplace is different. If you don’t know any of this information, speak to your principal or people leader.

Mental health support for staff after an incident

In the course of their work, school staff can be exposed to emergencies, violence, death of a student or staff member, or natural events like pandemics and natural disasters. These events can be traumatic and impact on a person’s mental health and wellbeing.

What to expect from Critical Incident Support

For critical incident support through the EAP, call 1300 361 008.

Psychological First Aid is the recommended first step in helping individuals who have experienced a distressing event. It guides people in what they should say and do to provide comfort and help the other person’s recovery. It also educates on the common reactions that individuals may experience after witnessing a critical incident such as feelings of guilt, sadness, anger, anxiety, confusion, uncertainty, and feeling overwhelmed.

Psychological first aid aims to:

  • help people feel calm
  • reduce distress
  • establish human connection, and facilitate people’s social support
  • help people understand the incident and its context
  • help people identify their own strengths and abilities to cope and utilise resilience skills
  • promote adaptive functioning
  • assist with early screening for people needing further help.

The Victorian Government is committed to preventing and responding to work-related violence (WRV) across the public sector.

School staff can be subject to unsafe behaviour from students, parents or other adults. This can have serious consequences for the health, safety and wellbeing of everyone in the school community.

Experiencing or witnessing WRV can cause physical and psychological harm. Threats to personal safety are linked to greater staff turnover rates and departure from the teaching profession.

It is important that school leaders manage WRV risks on an ongoing basis, regularly review and revise plans when necessary.

We provide the following supports:

  • The Respectful Behaviours in the School Community Policy promotes the importance of respectful and collaborative relationships between all members of a school community. It sets out clear guidelines on the expected standards of behaviour for parents, carers and other adults who interact with the school community.
  • The Work-Related Violence in Schools Policy and Procedure provides guidance for preventing, managing and responding to WRV risks in schools, including in response to aggression from students and parent/carers.
  • Department-funded Protective Intervention Training enables school staff to learn how to de-escalate situations involving aggressive or violent behaviour from students, while reducing the need for physical intervention.
  • The School Community Safety Order Scheme strengthens legal protections for school staff against parents, carers and other adults who behave in harmful, threatening or abusive ways towards other members of the school community.

Schools can also seek assistance from the OHS Advisory Service, including regional OHS officers. This service is managed by Mercer-Marsh Benefit:

Workplace bullying and sexual harassment

Bullying or harassment of any kind is against our values and will not be tolerated at any level.

Bullying is any form of ongoing, repeated, deliberate and targeted verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that intends to cause harm to another person.

Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature towards another person which could reasonably be expected to make that other person feel offended, humiliated or intimidated.

Employee Assistance Program

An EAP counsellor will be able to assist victims of bullying or harassment to understand the issues, how they are affecting that person, and assist with further help-seeking or next steps. To contact the EAP call 1300 361 008 or via the live chat on the LifeWorks Australia website.

Workplace Contact Officer Network

Workplace Contact Officers are members of staff who have volunteered to be a point of contact for colleagues experiencing harassment, discrimination, bullying, victimisation or family violence.

A Workplace Contact Officer can be contacted for a confidential discussion, at any time. Refer to further information on the Workplace Contact Officer Network.

Conflict Resolution Support Service

The Conflict Resolution Support Service helps resolve staff conflicts early and constructively through expert and independent support. This service can be used for a range of matters, including resolving disputes and miscommunications that affect wellbeing and work performance. This service can provide mediation, conflict coaching and team conflict interventions.

Available Monday – Friday during normal business hours:

Department support

Further information, advice or assistance on any matters related to workplace bullying or harassment is available by contacting the:

More information on Bullying Policy or Sexual Harassment.

External support for sexual harassment

Conflict with parents or carers

Principals can access third party conflict resolution services from our Parent Complaints Policy and related process.

Reporting workplace incidents, hazards and near misses

Reporting employee physical and psychological injuries, near misses and hazards in the workplace means risks can be addressed to prevent injuries occurring, keeping everyone safe at work.

Report incidents and hazards at eduSafe Plus.

All department employees are responsible for reporting workplace hazards, incidents, injuries and near misses as soon as practicable through eduSafe Plus. Employees can also report on behalf of other employees, contractors, visitors and volunteers.

The OHS Advisory Service and regional OHS support officers can provide support to schools in managing health, safety and wellbeing, including the use of eduSafe Plus and managing risks and hazards in the school.

Supporting students after distressing events or natural disasters

Major incidents such as pandemics and natural disasters can be traumatic for anyone. This trauma and stress can affect mental health.

Education

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