Emerald Isle team gives first-aid after tragedy (5/1/12 - Alaska USCG)

Petty Officer 1st Class Jeannette Alverio, during a one-on-one session as part of the Kodiak-based critical incident stress management teams….……island deeply because of these close ties and the Critical Incident Stress Management team has been working to offer support for the past two weeks.
Initially CISM was developed for fire services in the mid-80s and about a decade later the Coast Guard started using it for first responders to those involved in traumatic events.
“In Kodiak we have a unique situation because we’re a small community we have a joint CISM team,” said John Eaton, CISM team coordinator. “At any given time our team has 60 to 70 people, which about half are members of the local community and the other half is Coast Guardsmen.”
The CISM team is trained to provide pre-incident education, preparation, strategic planning, assessment and triage, and how to provide critical incident stress management services to individuals, small and large groups of people impacted by a traumatic event.
“When people experience critical incidents they are affected in five domains; they way they think, their emotions, their behavior, physically and spiritually,” said Eaton. “Everyone reacts differently. What’s a critical incident for me might not be for you and vice versa.”

Workplaces need to do more: RNC officer (5/11/12 - Newfoundland, Canada)

Now it is mandatory for officers to participate in critical incident stress debriefings. These have nothing to do with how an incident unfolded or was handled, but are all about the officer and how he or she is feeling.

Botswana Police Rep Scoops Gender Summit Award (5/4/12 - South Africa)

Senior Superintendent Thatatsotlhe Nwokoro of the Botswana Police Service (BPS) was awarded at the Gender Justice and Local Government Summit in Johannesberg for her presentation on gender-based violence. The presentation covered how to deal with GBV at both personal and professional levels, and described BPS's efforts to deal with GBV incidents.

In terms of support at professional level, Nwokoro stated that BPS has come up with Critical Stress Debriefing, which debriefs police officers when they attend to horrific incidents that leave them severely traumatised. She said the programme offers coping mechanisms for post-traumatic stress disorder.

"The expectation is that police officers have to attend to cases irrespective of fears, challenges and anxieties," she said.Violent GBV incidents traumatise police officers, she added, explaining that psychological trauma is not measurable because some of the signs may be a sudden abuse of alcohol or excessive smoking.

"Traumatic incidents have significant power to overwhelm normal coping capacity," she said. She said the programme is achieving remarkable results, noting that the demand for Critical Debriefing Services has increased, with 65 debriefing sessions having been held in 2011.

Enhancing Growth From Trauma: Workshops by Dr John Durkin (April 2012 - Australia)   

“3rd September – 28th September, 2012 | Perth, Melbourne, Auckland, Sydney, Brisbane and Singapore”

About Dr John Durkin

Dr John Durkin is a psychologist specializing in posttraumatic growth and social support. As a result of his experiences of emergencies and disasters from an earlier career as a firefighter in the UK, he was made aware of the effects of stress and trauma and became interested in understanding the processes leading to recovery.

“Workshop One”:

• The Role of Crisis Intervention in Promoting Posttraumatic Growth

“Workshop Two”:

• Facilitating Posttraumatic Growth – Techniques, Tools and Tactics

Professor on leave after student drowns (4/24/12 - Guam)
COUNSELING SERVICES
The University of Guam is offering counseling through its campus counseling services to faculty members, students and friends of A.J. Miralles.

• Critical incident debriefings for students and others who were on the field trip that day will be held today from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.
• Group counseling sessions will be facilitated by licensed mental health professionals and will allow those who shared this traumatic experience to express their thoughts and feelings.
• Only those individuals who were on the field trip may attend the critical incident debriefings.
• To seek individual counseling or for more information on the critical incident debriefings, call the University of Guam Isa Psychological Services Center at 735-2883 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Isa's hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.--5 p.m.
• The counseling sessions are separate and apart from witness statements and any information shared in a counseling session remains confidential and will not be forwarded to university administration or anyone leading or associated with the incident review.
• As the review process proceeds, additional information will be forthcoming in the days and weeks ahead.
  University of Guam
 

Healing the rescuers
4/22/12 Oklahoma

Garfield County Sheriff Bill Winchester said emergency responders have learned over the years it’s important to have critical incident stress management sessions after a highly traumatic call — a session where those who dealt with the emergency can deal with the emotions they pushed aside during the crisis. “It’s kind of a time for them to stop, take a breath, and say we’re done with this scene and it’s time to move on, but this is what we can expect,” Lillie said. “The debriefing was a couple of days later.” About 90 percent of emergency workers will experience critical-incident stress at some point in their careers, Lillie said. “Out of a single incident, about 30 percent will do fine, about 30 percent will have moderate critical-incident stress, and for about 30 percent, it will be severe,” Lillie said. The stress can manifest itself as sleep disturbances, flashbacks, inability to concentrate, anger, impatience, withdrawal, second-guessing their actions during the incident, agitation, excessive use of alcohol or tobacco, fear the next call will be like that one, and possessiveness toward people they love.The stress is a normal reaction to an abnormal event, Lillie emphasized.“If it’s not treated, it will lead to post-traumatic stress syndrome,” Lillie said.The Northwest Oklahoma Critical Incident Stress Management team brings three peers, a chaplain and a mental health professional together to meet in an incident debriefing with the emergency responders.“We have several stages we go through during the debriefing,” Lillie said. “The first is their initial response to the incident — what they did, what they saw.”