Critical Incident Stress Management

Is there a team of mental health workers specifically trained in critical incident stress management available to debrief rescuers and hospital personnel If not, who will be available to provide stress management for rescue/medical personnel ... 

Mitchell, J. T, Everly, G. S. (2000). Critical incident stress management and critical incident stress debriefing Evolutions, effects, and outcomes. In B. Raphael J. P. Wilson (Eds.), Psychological debriefing Theory, practice, and evidence (pp. 71-90). Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press. 

In their application, the Pulaski County School District established a project performance measure related to staff training and certification on critical incident stress management issues. However, the primary provider of training in this area, the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, has not offered the necessary courses within the certification process. Extra time may be needed to achieve this metric. 

During the recovery phase the disaster is over, and the facility attempts to return to usual operations. During this period of time, the disaster manager must be attuned to not only the operations of the organization, but to the staff as well. Plans should be in place to provide critical incident stress debriefing for those staff members who may have been exposed to traumatic experiences or worked for protracted periods of time and may be simply exhausted. It is during the recovery phase that... 

A search of NIOSH s website (www.cdc.gov/niosh) turns up 157 reports and references to PTSD. One report, from the U.S. Bureau of Mines, is titled, A human component to consider in your emergency management plans the critical incident stress factor. Other PTSD literature focuses on emergency response workers, the effects of disasters on workers, police, firefighters, miners and healthcare workers. 

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