Bounce Back

One of the greatest problems currently facing workers in the caring profession, specifically first responders, is the effect of vicarious trauma. Vicarious trauma is described as a transformation of a worker in a helping profession as a result of empathic engagement with trauma survivors and their traumatic material, combined with the responsibility and commitment to help them.

Bounce Back is an app to teach people how to manage and encourage further empathic responses. By developing this portable tool, individuals are able to manage empathetic responses to their work lives and people they encounter, in order to avoid burn out and fatigue. A digital app format allows us to personalize and update as required ensuring all content stays relevant and of continuous benefit to the user. The Bounce Back app guides the user through a personal assessment to ensure content delivered through the digital debriefing cards is relevant for them before proceeding to the debriefing stage.

Debriefing is encouraged to be carried out with a colleague in a conversational format and continues through four states: incident, thoughts, reactions and education. Once the process is complete, the user can seek further support if recommended.