The Carelink Foundation has chosen our agency as its partner for crisis communication issues in French-speaking Switzerland.
The Carelink Foundation is the Swiss leader in emergency psychosocial intervention and assistance. Its mission is to support companies and organisations in the preparation and 24/7 management of extraordinary events with its three categories of services: “Command” (crisis management), “Care” (psychosocial assistance) and, more recently, “Communication”.
In the field of communication, a wide range of preventive and preparatory services (training, advice, simulation exercises) is offered to Carelink’s clients. In the event of an emergency, Carelink’s crisis communication experts can either advise, support and relieve in-house communication teams, or entirely manage the communication of smaller companies or organisations.
In 2020, Carelink had more than 160 clients from 20 very different sectors and no less than 132 “Care” engagements on the ground. In addition to a permanent team of 10 people based at its headquarters in Glattbrugg (ZH), it can count on a network of almost 350 caregivers throughout Switzerland, including 80 emergency psychologists and 225 volunteers.
The origin story of Carelink deserves to be told. After the crash of the Swissair plane off the coast of Halifax in 1998, the “Swissair Emergency Care Team” was mobilised for weeks and gained unparalleled experience. Afterwards, it was often sought after for advice, training and practical support. This huge interest gave Swissair the idea of setting up an independent assistance organisation: “Carelink”, which was officially launched in August 2001 in Bern. After the major financial difficulties of the national airline from October 2001 onwards (“grounding”) and the crash of a Crossair plane (November 2001), in which the Carelink pioneers were already involved, the SBB, which had become a customer in the meantime, fortunately took over and enabled Carelink to continue its services. In 2003, the Carelink association became an independent private foundation, which it still is today.