Respond collaboratively to critical incidents
The safety and wellbeing of children, young people, educators and the learning community depend on effective and efficient management of critical incidents. Be You supports a whole learning community approach to mental health and wellbeing. This approach is crucial after a critical incident.
Following a critical incident, it will be important for your community to come together for support. It's important for you to understand your role in your community's response. A collaborative response is likely to minimise the potential negative impact on your wellbeing and the wellbeing of children, young people and their families.
Who is this module for?
The information provided in this module focuses on the response to critical incidents.
This module explores the key principles of critical incident management, focusing on the response and recovery phase. This includes clarifying the roles and responsibilities of each staff member in the learning community during these times.
The module also explores practical strategies and frameworks educators can use to support recovery and return to learning routines.
Primary and Secondary streams
Please note these modules mention death, self-harm and suicide. They explore the educator's role within a whole-school response in the event of a suicide.
Professional development
This module contributes to the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) and ACT Teacher Quality Institute (TQI) accredited professional development hours, addressing the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
In the ACT, completing Respond will contribute 90 minutes of ACT Teacher Quality Institute (TQI) accredited professional learning addressing standard 4.4.2 Maintain student safety of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
In NSW, completing the Respond module will contribute 90 minutes of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) accredited professional learning in the priority area of Student/child Mental health addressing standard descriptor 4.4.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW. Educators can complete modules individually and receive accredited hours.
In line with NESA’s changes to professional development requirements, this module will be accredited by NESA until 24 November 2025.
All registered teachers in every state and territory must ensure they have added their teacher registration number and state/territory to the My Profile page.
Please see FAQs for more details on the Be You Professional Learning upload process and time frames in which participants can expect their learning to be recorded with their relevant organisation.
See National standards on the Be You website to find out more about how the Be You Professional Learning aligns with other national frameworks and standards.
Learning outcomes
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- appreciate the importance of responding collaboratively to critical incidents
- understand strategies and frameworks that can support you to respond within your role
- take part in collaborative responses to critical incidents using different approaches
- take steps as an educator to collaboratively respond to the impacts of critical incidents.
Using the Notepad
If you’re a PC or Mac user, there’s a notepad feature for you to record notes, actions or discussion points for each topic. If you’re sharing a computer with your team, your notes will be available for everyone to view. If you wish to keep your notes private, please save and delete your notes each time you finish your session. There’s more information in the Notepad user guide on the right.
Using this module
The Be You Professional Learning modules are designed to be used flexibly in the way best suited for you and your learning community.
Consider one section at a time within the modules. At the end of each page, you will be prompted to explore additional resources within Be You that relate to the content. It is suggested that you complete one module at a time and use these prompts to identify future opportunities for learning.
You will be prompted to take breaks throughout; this can aid your learning and retention of the content.
You can further your learning by using the reflection questions provided throughout the module. Use these questions in ways that suit your learning community’s ways of working and broader professional development. There are also resources, such as the Be You Action Plan and Be You Actions Catalogue, that can be used to further facilitate these discussions.