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Higher Resources, Inc. (HRI) is an educational organization for victims of trauma.
Higher Resources, Inc. (HRI) is an educational organization offering programs designed to assist survivors of traumatic losses i.e. victims of trauma, families of those traumatized, as well as family members whose loved ones died in sudden, unexpected and traumatic ways. HRI also offers a series of classes for adults on adjustment to life’s losses that are not caused by trauma. Please contact Carolyn for any educational sessions for individual survivors.
HRI corporate training programs are presented through Aviem International, Inc. and the Family Assistance Foundation.
I worked for an airline in the seventies where we had three fatal crashes. Over 300 people died. Along with passengers, we lost many employees and staff family members. While much was learned in each crash about physical safety to prevent future accidents, there were no formal lessons learned to improve how airlines responded to the emotional needs of survivors. In 1985, I was working in the insurance industry when my fiancé died on impact in the crash of Delta Air Lines 191 at DFW Airport. That day I committed myself to help bridge the gap between airlines and survivors when a crash occurs, for I knew that there were employees who wanted to help us but did not know how.
Today in our corporate training classes at aviem.com, we use the same models with all businesses and all organizations experiencing a tragedy involving their employees, customers and all families who are touched by the crisis.
I entered a Ph.D. program at the University of New Mexico and the Medical Research Division (CAMI) of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sponsored my doctoral study on the influence that employees of an airline have on survivors’ recovery. Survivors of 6 fatal airline crashes were asked to rate on a Likert scale (1-5) their perception of those who assisted them during the first 24-48 hours, post-crash. The three groups of responders were the airline’s employees, uniformed first responders and hospital personnel. This score was compared to the number of symptoms of the five disorders associated with trauma. The airline’s employees were the only group that could be associated with more or less symptoms of the disorders, and full cases of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Clinical Depression.
This research became proof of the value of training the airline employees on what to do and how to be proactive in assisting survivors (passengers, fellow employees and all family members) at the time of the disaster and led to Human Services Response™ (HSR) Training. The HSR™ models are used by transportation and other industries around the globe as a way to empower employees when tragedy strikes their workplace. In addition to conducting training for corporations, I work with individual survivors of trauma, as a clinical hypnotherapist, helping with the integration of the losses and the traumatic event.
Depression Awareness/Suicide Prevention Program
Years of assisting HR directors and other workplace leaders with programs on suicide prevention has led Carolyn to develop her own Depression Awareness/Suicide Prevention™ (DASP) training program. While utilizing the current research and knowledge available to all suicidologists, Carolyn presents training using her own extensive video library of interviews with individuals whose stories directly relate to the subject of depression and suicide prevention. Specifically, HRI offers courses for the cruise line, aviation industries and the workplace in general. Attendees benefit by use of case studies and roleplays taken directly from her own case files.
Contact Carolyn carolyn@higherresources.tempurl.host
The specialized nature of my passion became evident one day several years after I was well into my work. My 95-year-old Mother was standing in my study, staring at the books on the shelves. She pointed specifically to books about disasters, traumatic death, funerals, and counseling the bereaved, etc. and said, “I have no idea where you came from. I would never want to read any of this.” I responded by telling her that I understood how my interests might differ from most people’s. But I had learned that while disasters are the worst things in the world, the second was a disaster taking place with people standing around having no idea what to do, or how to help those who are impacted. She shook her head and answered, “I suppose you are right.”
Over the years, I have received many emails and even personal calls where someone who attended one of our HSR™ classes through their employer, shared with me, that while thank God they did not lose an airplane or have a disaster in their work place that year, they had a coworker, or a neighbor experience a death or other kind of trauma, where the employee knew just how to help. The principles we teach about how people need practical support and have very basic needs, helped that person know how to assist–when others had no idea. This training is not only valuable to companies, but to any human being interested in connecting people with hope. It has been a privilege to listen to so many survivor’s stories, and it is has become my life’s work to share what survivors have taught me about how to help as many people as possible.
The following are the earliest complete videos used for training. In addition to these Human Resources Response™ training videos, we have a significant collection of videos featuring survivors from various domestic and international events including aviation disasters, cruise line tragedies, and multiple other industrial terrorist attacks, and mass shootings.
Video 1: HSR Part 1
Video 2: HSR Part 2
Video 3: Origins of HSR
Video 4: A Different Journey
Video 5: Integrating the Losses
Video 6: Perspectives
Video 7: Family Survivors Share the Wisdom
Human Services Response™ (HSR) is a non-counseling approach offered by the employees who work for an organization where one or more customers and/or employees are involved in a crisis in the workplace. It emphasizes the need for helping people with practical needs and emotional support. Every employee or representative of that company is empowered to act with compassion, and encouraged to show the heart behind the logo. Since all who provide assistance to survivors with practical issues, regardless of whether they are executives, or whatever their job title or profession, the term “Human Service” seems to describe what everyone is engaged in during the initial hours of response. Thus the name of the program “Human Services Response.”
HSR is based on interviews with survivors of all types of crises and disasters and was developed specifically to address the gap that often exists between the time the crisis occurs and when a survivor’s family and other personal resources become available. HSR assumes that once physical safety is assured, survivors’ immediate needs are best met by the impacted organization that has the resources and power to provide for practical support (food, lodging, transportation, etc.) and emotional support by providing re-connection with survivors’ own family, friends, and other natural support systems.
When Carolyn’s fiancé was killed in a major airline disaster in 1985, she became interested in how an airline might empower their own employees to assist the passenger, crew and families, who survive the tragedy, in the immediate aftermath of the losses. She discovered that such a model for business and industry did not exist. Interviews with employees who were there at the time of the accident revealed their fear of approaching the public. They were afraid their behavior or words might have legal implications and were concerned they might make a situation worse by taking wrong actions.
Recognizing the need for a model that would allow employees to assist the public while remaining in their role, utilizing the helping skills that are consistent with their daily work, she developed a model, which she labeled Human Services Response™. In her review of training programs used by the National Institute of Mental Health used at that time to prepare volunteers to assist in the aftermath of natural disasters, i.e., floods, hurricanes, tornados and the like, Carolyn came upon the term “Human Service Worker.” The term was used in reference to all workers, regardless of their background or profession, so they might all receive the same training and perform similar roles in helping survivors during disasters.
Interviews with survivors in her research revealed that what they wanted most was information and assistance with practical matters in the initial stages of the crisis. At that time, and still today, many companies do not understand these needs and have a tendency to defer to mental health counselors for survivor support in the early phase, often before survivors even know what has happened to themselves or their loved ones. Many survivors are being offered grief counseling before they know that a loved one is dead.
While HRI recognizes the need for counseling and trauma support following crisis, when and how it is offered should be considered and, at the most, it should be presented as an option during the first 24-48 hours. Most survivors in the research who have chosen counseling have found it most beneficial once they have returned home and are attempting to integrate the trauma into their lives. More on counseling appears under the resource section of the HRI site.