Forgetting “The Day After” Debrief

What about the day after the services? There are still some critical tasks that need to be completed. One is to have your strategic planning team review the protocol and operational plan and evaluate how well things worked, what went well and what needs to be improved. The other is to have a critical incident debriefing for the planning team members.

I have encountered agencies that, as soon as the funeral services were over, took their operational plans, guidelines, even protocols the agency had and put them into folders and into a file cabinet. There were no reviews, no evaluations, no updates, no recommendations for improvement or change, If the funeral planning had been some other sort of unusual occurrence incident involving mobilizing the entire agency etc. there would have been an after action report for the chief and debriefings to evaluate the agency’s preparedness level etc. But, for some reason, line-of-duty funerals often don’t warrant this sort of status of importance and review.

Fortunately funeral planning doesn’t happen often for most agencies. I worked for a large agency and had two funerals the first two weeks I had the job as funeral coordinator, quickly followed by an off-duty death and a suicide. But the issue isn’t frequency but being prepared and being prepared includes insuring your protocols and operational plan guidelines are updated and the best they can be. The best way to accomplish this, besides maybe an annual review, is that when a death occurs to evaluate the entire level of preparedness and planning, coordination, and management process. Why not? It is as important as any other crisis situation..

My experience has been that the primary planning team seldom has the time to participate in the critical incident debriefings provided by the agency, they are busy. Their duties require long hours and difficult discussions about very emotional issues. After it’s all over, the day after the services, they need to attend a debriefing, one specifically for them. Their involvement was unique and started the moment the death occurred and didn’t end until the services concluded. Actually for some their duties haven’t ended yet and won’t for a long time. But for others their duty is done and now it’s back to the daily routine. They need an opportunity to deal with the emotions and stress they encountered during the days they were committed to managing the funeral planning process and all that it involved, the task oriented and the interpersonal issues involved. As with most debriefings, it is not voluntary. These team members should not be overlooked or ignored, it’s important for them.

So, an important part of any funeral planning process is to insure that the agency’s response was critically evaluated after the services are over. Additionally, the members of the planning team need to have their own critical incident debriefing the day after the services. These two factors need to be part of the agency’s protocol and response guidelines.

By John Cooley