17 Psychosocial risks
Traumatic Events or Materials
Witnessing, investigating or being directly exposed to traumatic events or material is a workplace psychosocial hazard. Exposure to traumatic events or material can severely impact mental and physical health and wellbeing and impacts can be long lasting.
Trauma affects everyone differently, but a person is more likely to experience an event as traumatic when:
it is unexpected
they felt unprepared
they perceived it as uncontrollable or unpreventable
it is the result of intentional cruelty.
Traumatic events or material includes vicarious exposure, when the person is indirectly exposed to another person’s trauma, and cumulative trauma when they are exposed on multiple occasions.
How an exposure affects an individual depends on many factors but repeated exposure to work related trauma increases the likelihood that trauma will occur.
What are traumatic events and materials?
Traumatic events or material may include:
Witnessing or investigating a fatality, serious injury, abuse, neglect or serious incident
Exposure to seriously injured or deceased persons
Experiencing fear or extreme risks
Exposure to natural disasters
Qitnessing or investigating terrorism or war
Supporting victims of painful and traumatic events
Listening to or reading descriptions of painful and traumatic events experienced by others
Finding evidence of crimes or traumatic events
Exposure to events that bring up traumatic memories.
Common negative reactions to traumatic events or materials
Individuals may experience the effects of traumatic events and material differently. Some of the negative reactions include, but are not limited to:
feeling emotionally numb or shut-down
difficulty in managing emotions
fatigue, sleepiness or difficulty falling to sleep
easily distracted which can increase a person’s risk of accident
physical problems or complaints such as aches, pains and/or a decreased resistance to illness
relationship problems such as withdrawing from friends and family, increased interpersonal conflicts
feeling vulnerable or excessive worrying about potential dangers and family safety
increased irritability, aggressive, explosive or violent outbursts and behaviour
destructive coping or addictive behaviours
decreased participation in activities that used to be enjoyable.
While some people experience reactions to trauma directly after the event or exposure, delayed responses are also a normal reaction, occurring months or sometimes years later.
In addition to considering how to eliminate or minimise exposure to traumatic events and material workplaces should consider implementing trauma-informed approaches to help minimise impact of trauma on workers.
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psychosocial risks
Please note that the information on this page is based on guidance from Comcare’s psychosocial resources. Definitions, terminology, and regulatory expectations may vary by state, territory, or country. Each psychosocial risk has its own dedicated page, and ReFresh is designed to adapt to the specific regulations and frameworks that apply in your jurisdiction, supporting organisations operating across different regions worldwide.