Critical Incident Recovery Pack

CRITICAL INCIDENT RECOVERY PACK

The incident may be over—but your body and mind may still be responding.

After a critical or high-impact incident, people are often expected to finish the task, complete the paperwork and move on. Yet the first few hours and days can influence how supported, connected and able to recover someone feels.

The Critical Incident Recovery Pack is a premium 22-page interactive resource designed to provide practical structure after a confronting event.

It guides users from the immediate aftermath through leaving the workplace, returning home, protecting the first night and reviewing how they are travelling over the following days.

This is not about forcing someone to talk or relive graphic details. It is about stabilising the body, protecting basic needs, maintaining connection and knowing when additional support may be required.

INSIDE THE PACK

• Minimum Viable Recovery Plan for low-capacity moments

• Immediate safety and stabilisation check

• Understanding common immediate reactions

• RESPOND framework for the first hours

• Before-I-Leave-the-Workplace checklist

• Safe transport and practical departure planning

• Transition-home reflection

• Family and partner communication prompts

• Protecting the first night

• Sleep, rest and low-pressure recovery planning

• First 24–72 hours load-reduction worksheet

• Managing replay, images and intrusive thoughts

• Guilt, hindsight and responsibility reflection

• Safe peer-support conversation guide

• Leadership After the Incident checklist

• Crew and team follow-through planner

• 72-hour wellbeing check

• One-week recovery review

• Professional-support and escalation guidance

• One-page Incident Recovery Plan

SUPPORT FOR THE HOURS THAT MATTER

Immediately after an incident, the nervous system may remain mobilised even when the operational task has ended.

The pack helps users focus on practical questions:

• Am I physically safe and able to function?

• What does my body need first?

• Am I fit to drive or leave alone?

• Who knows what happened and how I am travelling?

• What do I need before leaving the station or workplace?

• What can be reduced over the next 24 hours?

• When will someone check in again?

RESPOND IN THE FIRST HOURS

The pack includes a practical application of Anthony Pymm’s RESPOND framework:

Recognise

Exhale

Shift

Purpose

Open Up

Navigate

Develop Others

Users can complete the whole sequence or choose the one step they need most.

Even one RESPOND step can create useful movement when attention, energy and decision-making capacity are limited.

FOR PEERS, LEADERS AND WORKPLACES

A critical incident response should not end when the scene is cleared or the shift finishes.

Dedicated pages help peer supporters, managers and supervisors:

• Attend to immediate medical and psychological safety

• Reduce unnecessary operational demands

• Offer support without forcing disclosure

• Protect privacy

• Confirm safe transport

• Communicate clearly about what happens next

• Set a specific follow-up time

• Check in after several days—not only immediately

• Review workload, exposure and return expectations

FOR PARTNERS AND FAMILIES

Critical incidents also arrive home.

The pack includes practical language to help someone tell their family that a difficult incident occurred without sharing graphic details or leaving loved ones to guess what is wrong.

It also supports a deliberate transition from work to home, clearer communication about immediate needs and reconnection without placing responsibility for recovery onto the family.

INTERACTIVE DIGITAL FORMAT

This premium PDF contains 132 working fields, including 65 one-tap checkboxes.

It can be completed electronically using Adobe Acrobat Reader or another form-compatible PDF reader.

Users can type directly into the worksheets, select checkboxes, save their responses and return to the resource throughout the recovery period.

INFORMED BY LIVED EXPERIENCE

This resource is informed by Anthony Pymm’s lived experience of PTSD recovery and 27 years of frontline service—while still serving.

Anthony combines lived experience with leadership, training and practical wellbeing education to help first responders, families and workplaces have conversations that are often delayed until breaking point.

The message is simple: early conversation, honest support and practical follow-through are not signs of weakness. They help protect the person behind the role.

WHO IS THIS PACK FOR?

• Police and other law-enforcement personnel

• Firefighters and rescue personnel

• Paramedics and emergency medical workers

• Dispatchers and communications staff

• Defence personnel and veterans

• Healthcare and frontline workers

• Peer supporters and wellbeing teams

• Managers, supervisors and organisational leaders

• Partners and family members

• Anyone affected by a critical or high-impact workplace incident

PLEASE NOTE

This pack is an educational and reflective resource. It is not a formal psychological debrief and does not replace an organisation’s critical-incident, welfare, health or safety procedures.

It does not provide clinical, medical, legal or workplace-safety advice, diagnosis or treatment. It does not replace therapy, medical care, professional support or emergency assistance.

Immediate safety concerns, severe or worsening symptoms, inability to function or thoughts of harm require appropriate professional or emergency support.

LICENSING

This purchase is for individual use by the purchaser.

If you would like to distribute or use this resource across a team, organisation, workplace, peer-support program, training course or employee wellbeing library, please contact Healing Behind the Badge Consulting to discuss an organisational licence.

DIGITAL PRODUCT

This is a digital PDF product. No physical item will be shipped.

Copyright © 2026 Anthony Pymm

Healing Behind the Badge Consulting

Real Talk. Real Healing.

www.healingbehindthebadge.com.au