I will start by expressing the heartfelt condolences of the board of directors, the faculty, and the staff of the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc. to all who have suffered the loss of family and friends in the immoral attacks upon the United States. ICISF has a unique and special relationship with emergency services personnel worldwide. We are, therefore, particularly saddened by the overwhelming losses encountered by the fire, rescue, law enforcement and emergency medical services agencies of the City of New York. The pain of their loss lies deep within our hearts. We are also concerned about the many people who have been injured in the horrific events of September 11. Our sympathies, thoughts and prayers are with all of you.
Next, I would like to thank those of
you who heeded the warnings given on this web site last week not to over
respond to the events in Washington, New York and Pennsylvania. Your restraint is appreciated.
We continue the warnings that have been made in the
past not to respond either as individuals or teams unless you have been
specifically called to assist in the incident.
It would be helpful if those who have been requested to assist would
coordinate their efforts with ICISF.
Some mental health professionals, peer support personnel and teams have
self-dispatched to New York. We have
received numerous complaints already that there are some who are engaged in
duplication of efforts or worse, some reports that a few people are working at
cross-purposes to the main effort.
The work at foundation headquarters proceeds at an
intense pace. An ICISF assessment and
consultation team is on the ground and functioning in New York City. We are receiving updates and direction from
that team on a regular basis. It is
clear from their comments that CISM is only in its preliminary stages at this
point and operations personnel are, for the most part, not ready for group
interventions such as CISDs. This
operation is going to be a lengthy one.
We need to be prepared for that.
A small burst of uncoordinated effort very early on in the incident will
not be that helpful in the long run.
What is needed is a carefully orchestrated program of CISM interventions
and referrals in the months to come.
We have handled many hundreds of phone calls above
our normal levels. Every one of the
five phone lines has been in operation practically every second of each
prolonged workday since a few minutes after the attack. This does not even address the calls made
from the homes of the officers, faculty and staff of the foundation. The office
has been operating from 6 a.m. to 8 or 9 p.m. each day since Tuesday. The fax machine never stops. There are hundreds of e-mails. We have had a CISM mental health professional
either in the office or immediately on call since Wednesday. The ICISF headquarters was staffed over this
past weekend even though the office is not ordinarily open on weekends.
We have handled calls from individuals in pain. We have managed calls requesting referrals
for friends. Calls have come in from
fire services, law enforcement agencies, emergency medical services, hospitals,
school districts, airlines, businesses, employee assistance programs,
government officials, the military and a host of others. There have been urgent requests for
information on managing children in the aftermath of the disaster as well as
assisting adults with their needs.
Numerous articles have been written and put up on the web site so that
the reader can pull them down and use them as they need. More are being produced each day. Please check the website (http://www.icisf.org/)
to obtain specific information on what we have made available anyone who is
interested.
We still do not have requests for CISD so please
hold off any attempts to provide those.
The only exception so far has been the airlines which are trying to get
back into action. There are also some
businesses that need group support at this time. Some limited CISD work is planned for the next few days. One-on-one services are being utilized most
frequently at the scenes of these events.
Group work is not indicated at this time. Remember, for group work to be effective it must be provided to
homogenous groups, whose mission is completed and who have encountered roughly
equal levels of trauma exposure. It is
also important that properly trained teams provide the services according to
the standards of practice that have been established for CISM teams.
Given the magnitude of the search and recovery
operations, I think it will be several more weeks before any serious group work
is provided for the emergency personnel.
Civilians may require group intervention a bit earlier and some is
planned on a case-by-case basis.
Please, let us keep the big picture in mind. We need a comprehensive, systematic and
multi-tactic approach to managing traumatic stress in these terrible
times. Clear planning, coordination
with ICISF and thoughtful, carefully applied interventions can do much
good. No harm has ever been documented
when well-trained people have intervened and utilized the well- established and
widely accepted standards of CISM practice.
We need to be in this for the long haul, not just the short run. Thank you!
Jeffrey
T. Mitchell, Ph.D., CTS
President
of ICISF