Gerry Jackson is a Psychosocial Care and Trauma Response Specialist working in the areas of Post Trauma Stress, Stress Management, Mediation, Bullying and Managing Violence and Aggression in the Workplace. He has wide-ranging experience in providing on-site Psychological First Aid and in facilitating training and interactive workshop groups for commerce, industry, local authorities and emergency services – both nationally and internationally.

Gerry has proven skills in identifying training needs, and designing and delivering innovative and interactive courses and workshops in all aspects of management, stress, interpersonal relationships and related fields. He also has wide experience of change management and conflict resolution.

Gerry served 30 years in the Metropolitan Police, leading teams of uniformed and detective officers operationally and with responsibility for their appraisal and personal development. His last 9 years service were at Heathrow Airport where he was operational duty officer and latterly in charge of training. He managed a team of seven training staff, identifying training needs, designing and delivering innovative training for 500 operational police officers and civilian staff at the airport. He has a good knowledge of the world of aviation and, in particular, the management of aircraft disasters and major incidents.

He has personal experience at several major disaster scenes including Lockerbie, the Kegworth air crash and the Marchioness Riverboat Disaster. He was the leader of Heathrow Airport Body Recovery and Identification Team, which was the forerunner of what has now become the National Disaster Victim Identification Team. He has experience of training emergency services personnel, voluntary agencies and those in commerce in the whole subject of managing disasters and major incidents, including the roles of all relevant services and how they should all co-ordinate their activities.

He is now retired from the Police Service and runs his own successful training, consultancy and ‘On-site’ Psychological First Aid response business, MGJ People Support Ltd.

Gerry was originally trained in the Police service in Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) and used the model, both within and outside the police service for some years. In 2009 the Department of Health issued some guidelines for the NHS, which made recommendations about psychosocial care of people following traumatic incidents. The guidelines suggested that Psychological First Aid should be used in providing support and that is now the model he recommends, uses during his on-site work and that provides the basis of his training courses.

He has 30 years experience of providing support for those involved in traumatic incidents, both within and outside the police service. Apart from day to day events such as violent crime, assaults, deaths, accidents etc., his experience includes such high profile incidents as the ‘Southall’ and ‘Ladbroke Grove’ train crashes, the British Airways aircraft crash at Heathrow Airport, supporting evacuees and hostages arriving into the UK from Algeria following the terrorist attack in February 2013 and the terrorist bombing at the Manchester Arena in 2017.

He remains at the leading edge of managing the aftermath of traumatic incidents and is an authority on the Department of Health guidance mentioned above entitled ‘NHS Emergency Planning Guidance: Planning for the Psychosocial and Mental Health Care of People Affected by Major Incidents and Disasters: Interim National Strategic Guidance’, which is applicable to traumatic incidents of all types and contains important recommendations for those providing care after traumatic incidents.

Gerry is a qualified and experienced Mediator and works with disputes between individuals and groups in commercial settings, emergency services, disputes between neighbours, in educational settings and many others.

Recommendation from Doctor Liz Donovan, Medical Lead, Staff Support, University Hospital Southampton.

I met Gerry through attending one of his excellent Psychological First Aid training courses. His vast experience and his gentle humanity shone through. Since then Gerry has adapted his course to suit the needs of my consultant colleagues in our Acute NHS Trust and then, as COVID 19 set in, adapted it again to be delivered on line. In addition to his courses, he has been an invaluable member of our staff psychological response team both advising, but more particularly, working with and supporting staff in a counselling capacity, through this enormous challenge. He has worked initially in ED, and more recently as part of the team working with ICU staff. Gerry knows what skills he has and where these lie, he never oversteps this and this, along with his calm and gentle yet business-like manner  is what  makes him so utterly trusted by the team; I can’t recommend him highly enough.