Family First: liaison and support during a crisis
After a critical incident, the family of the person involved is the party the organisation is least prepared to deal with and the one whose experience is remembered longest.
Download the paper (PDF, English)Why family liaison is a separate function
In most organisations, communication with the family is handled by whoever is closest to the incident. That is exactly the wrong arrangement, for three reasons.
The crisis manager is making operational decisions that the family will not agree with, and cannot be both the person who decides and the person who explains. The crisis manager is also, usually, exhausted and unavailable at the precise moments the family needs contact. And the family's needs persist long after the crisis team has stood down: an incident is managed for days or weeks, but a family's situation lasts for years.
Family liaison therefore has to be a named role, held by someone with the seniority to get answers from the organisation, with a deputy, and with relief arrangements so that the role survives a single person's leave or illness.
What the role involves
- First contact. Made in person where possible, by someone senior, stating only what is confirmed. Speculation in the first conversation is remembered and resented for years.
- One point of contact. The family should not have to work out whom to call. The liaison person is reachable, returns calls, and says when they do not yet know.
- Regular, scheduled contact. Agreed intervals rather than contact only when there is news, because silence is read as concealment.
- Practical support. Travel, accommodation, visas, interpretation, and money for immediate costs without a claim form.
- Interpretation of the organisation. Explaining what the organisation is doing, why the process takes as long as it does, and who has decided what.
- A route to complain. A named person outside the liaison role, because occasionally the family's problem is the liaison person.
What the family needs to be told, and when
The paper sets out a sequence. What is confirmed, immediately. What is being done, and by whom, within the first day. What the process will be and how long each stage normally takes, once that is known. What the organisation will cover. What will be published, and when, before it is published. And, when the time comes, the findings of the review and what has changed as a result.
Two rules run through all of it. The family hears bad news from the organisation before it hears it anywhere else, including from the press. And the family is never asked to make a decision that the organisation should be making.
Preparing in advance
Most of what makes family liaison work is decided before an incident. A named liaison person and deputy. Next-of-kin details recorded and confirmed at each deployment. A written guide for families, prepared when there is time to write it properly. And a standing arrangement with the insurer so that practical costs do not have to be argued about in the first week.
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