Trauma Awareness & Peer Support

Journalists and production staff work in a demanding environment of deadline pressures, fast-paced events, confrontation and conflict. To help foster a supportive and productive workplace, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in collaboration with Dart Centre Austria Pacific produced "Trauma Awareness: Peer Support," a video that highlights the value of awareness training and peer support in the workplace for journalists covering traumatic events.

The ABC's three-tier approach to trauma and stress management is designed to deal with the emotional stress of working in a realm of violence and death and includes training of journalist peer supporters as well as regular phone call check-ins.

The video features Lisa Maksimovic, an ABC reporter who covered the 2009 bushfires, Cait McMahon, managing director of Dart Centre Australasia and others talking about the importance of peer support.

Click to the second slide to access this video in Spanish.