 |
|
|
| What is CISM?
Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) is a program of services designed to assist individuals following a critical incident.
A team of CISM volunteers work together to help EMS personnel survive the stress of a critical incident.
Stress Management Services (CISM) include:
Peer Support: Short-term informal one-to-one peer support and referral assistance.
Defusing: An informal one-to-one or group session designed to focus on, and educate about, immediate reactions to an event.
Debriefing: A more formal group-orientated process which explores and attempts to lessen the psychological and emotional impact of a difficult event.
Demobilization and Crisis Management Briefings A brief discussion about the impact of an event designed to help "defuse" personnel as they are released from a major prolonged incident.
On-Site Stress Management: Provides trained individuals at the scene of prolonged major incidents to facilitate emotional support.
Awareness Training: A special pre-incident awareness education program to educate personnel about CISM.
A critical incident is any traumatic event that is outside the usual range of human experience. These events have the potential of causing traumatic stress reactions that may impair cognitive, emotional, spiritual, or physical function.
These reactions are a normal response to an abnormal situation.
Examples of critical incidents include:
» Line of duty death/injury
» Child's death/trauma
» Mass casualty incident/disaster
» Prolonged extrication effort
» Use of deadly force
» Fire death
» Suicide
» Trauma to someone you know
» Several critical events over a short period of time.
Emergency Medical Service personnel (law enforcement, dispatch, ambulance, fire/rescue, and hospital staff) experience more traumatic events than the general public as "part of the job" and generally cope very well. However, situations like those noted above and others may evoke strong reactions in even the most experience staff.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
