Exposure to traumatic events

Information for employers and workers about managing the risk associated with exposure to traumatic events and material.

How exposure to traumatic events can be harmful

What is exposure to traumatic events?

Exposure to a traumatic event happens when workers provide care and assistance to people who are going through trauma, or when they hear, see, or read detailed accounts of traumatic experiences.

Some workers deal with traumatic incidents regularly. These workers include:

  • first responders, health care workers and disaster response and recovery
  • rape crisis and child protection workers, officers of the court, lawyers or immigration officers
  • someone who experiences, witnesses or investigates a serious near miss, injury or workplace fatality.

However, workers in other industries may also be exposed, including:

  • education settings
  • transport, where drivers are exposed to serious incidents
  • translators exposed to interpreting traumatic events
  • hospitality workers exposed to violence and attending to emergencies related to customers, and
  • journalism, where reporters cover disasters and war zones.

Risks related to exposure to traumatic events

Exposure to traumatic events, particularly as a cumulative exposure, can greatly affect a person’s physical and psychological health. It can lead to:

  • emotional and cognitive reactions such as a loss of confidence, fear, irritability and difficulty trusting others
  • behavioural changes such as withdrawal, sleep problems and avoiding situations that may trigger past trauma
  • stress, post-traumatic stress disorder or depression which can lead to self-harm and suicidal thoughts
  • physical reactions such as headaches, indigestion, fatigue and loss of appetite
  • stress related illness such as cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disorders and gastrointestinal disorders.

It can also have social and economic costs for the workers, their family and the business.

How to manage the risks

Employers/PCBUs

Under work, health and safety (WHS) laws, a person conducting a business of undertaking (PCBU) must take proactive steps to prevent exposure to traumatic events where it is reasonably practicable.

PCBUs must:

  • Eliminate health and safety risks at work, including psychosocial risks. If PCBUs are unable to eliminate risks, they must be minimised so far as is reasonably practicable.
  • Manage risks associated with exposure to traumatic events and consider applying the risk management process  (PDF, 556.72 KB) to assist in meeting their duties. This process involves consulting with workers to identify, manage, control, and review risks related to the hazard.
  • Identify and adopt effective control measures. Find information about how to do this on our psychosocial hazards page.

The Managing psychosocial hazards at work code of practice will help you meet your responsibilities under WHS laws in NSW.

Workers

While at work, workers must:

  • take reasonable care for their own psychological and physical health and safety
  • take reasonable care not to adversely affect the health and safety of other persons
  • comply with reasonable health and safety instructions, as far as they are reasonably able
  • cooperate with reasonable health and safety policies or procedures such as reporting inappropriate workplace behaviours.

Workers should report concerns related to their exposure to traumatic events and any impacts this is having on their health and safety. This will ensure they get support and the PCBU can take action to address the risk.

If you have raised concerns about harmful workplace behaviour internally and no action is being taken, read our ‘Dealing with a psychological health and safety issue at work’ section for further assistance.

Examples of controls and actions

PCBUs must use the hierarchy of controls (PDF, 46.87 KB) and consider all relevant matters within Section 55D of the WHS Regulation 2025 when identifying appropriate control measures to eliminate and minimise the risk of exposure to traumatic events.

When choosing control measures you must consider all hazards present and how they may interact and combine.

Some examples of controls that can help minimise harm:

  • Eliminate physical risks to health and safety in the workplace to prevent trauma from a workplace incident or near miss.
  • Consider workplace layout to minimise exposure to traumatic material, for example, individual offices, facing computer monitors in a way that limits exposure to traumatic material.
  • Remove or secure potentially lethal means of self-harm such as medications or hazardous chemicals) from the workplace or secure them. For example, you could require two workers to enter codes to access storage units or require higher level authorisation processes.
  • Design work to minimise the number of workers exposed to traumatic events. For example, design roles so tasks that can be carried out away from an accident or disaster scene are performed from another location or once the traumatic detail (such as a body) is removed from the site.
  • Use artificial intelligence to assist in the design and completion of tasks that expose workers to traumatic material. For example, automated redaction and blurring, text and language screening and filtering systems.
  • Design a work system that promotes healthy workloads to reduce exposure, for example, incorporating breaks, role rotation from high risk to low-risk roles, recovery time and periodic health assessments.
  • Develop a support framework for workers who are exposed to traumatic events to ensure their health is monitored. For example, regular health checks, accessible and available manager support, peer support programs and post-incident support processes.
  • Focus recruitment practices on appointing suitably skilled and qualified new workers into roles which include high exposure to traumatic events, ensuring new workers are also given details about hazards they will be exposed to.
  • Provide managers with information, training and instruction on how to respond and manage reported exposures, including how to identify early signs of distress and psychological injury, how to investigate such reports and support to offer if required.

Note: These are examples only. You must consult with workers to identify and implement control measures that eliminate or minimise the risks in your workplace, so far as is reasonably practicable.

Resources

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