Critical Incident Stress Management
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Using critical incident stress management will enable a person to return to their daily activities more quickly and with little or no effect of post traumatic stress disorder. The probability of facing a tragedy is becoming societally systemic. Mass crises and disasters are becoming more and more frequent; some say epidemic. What ever the descriptive, effective crisis response is necessary to avert unwelcome and unintended consequences. When we look back at tragedies like 911, there was very little people could do about what happened on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 before or during the incident. Millions of workers, visitors, and passersby were stunned to see and feel the results of the plane exploding into The World Trade Center, North Tower. While police officers, fire fighters, co-workers, supervisors, politicians, and family members attempted to react, to the devastation, the World Trade Center's South Tower was hit. Clearly, America was blind-sided with this event. A comprehensive plan for critical incident stress management could have helped to resolve some of the issues throughout New York, the nation and the world through whom the reverberation of that day can still be felt. There must have been something that could have been done differently in order to have a different outcome, to lessen the effects on the people, the families, the lives that were negatively impacted. Many people have been scarred for life. Some will not enter tall buildings, others will never get on an airplane, and still others may never enter a major city or travel the world. Those outcomes do not compare to the loss of lives, limbs, and dreams suffered by so many others.
Because of this and numerous other major incidents, a comprehensive multi-dimensional, integrated crisis intervention system has been developed to pre-respond, respond, and post-respond to these critical incidents. It's formal name is Critical Incident Stress Management. It involves several core components. Together these components make up a comprehensive plan that can be used to educate those involved in these critical life altering situations for a more immediate, organized, and effective response. The whole process begins with pre-crisis preparation. Effective action must start with a targeted response and not a "reaction." Once a person goes into reaction mode, they are already at a disadvantage. Clearly the person was not prepared or ready for a disaster or large-scale incident. It is incumbent upon schools, community organizations, government agencies and churches to have already planned out a communication method, a mode of transportation, and a treatment procedure for different types of tragedies. After development, such a plan must be clearly communicated and even practiced by the people who are charged with the mobilization.
Within hours of the situation, if not minutes, assessments, triage, and alleviation of acute symptoms should take place. In that regard, a critical incident stress managementplan is essential to savings lives, savings homes, and saving families. Counselors, support groups, and ministers should be ready to defuse the hysteria, shock, and anger that follows such events. During these sessions, people are given the opportunity to vent, to grieve, and to indicate their level of rage and disbelief over the tragedy. Through one or more sessions of this stress debriefing, those in charge should be able to assess the need for follow-up and help to provide closure for those involved. Sometimes Critical Incident Stress Management may include ongoing medical and/or psychological treatments. For those who have been severely physically traumatized, there is likely to be a long adjustment period. Referrals to appropriate agencies should be just a phone call away. All of the necessary paperwork for referrals and treatments must be handled gingerly and with the utmost regard for the person in crises. Surely, a "stress team" member could be assigned to these types of tasks. When a person has just lived through a major tragedy and been severely injured on top of that, it is cold-hearted to hand them a mountain of paperwork to read and figure out.
One of the reasons why a critical incident stress management plan must be comprehensive is that people are complex. And anything that has an impact on one person, most likely impacts an entire family. Rarely are people without family members and even if they are, most will have a non-relative who cares deeply for them. Working with family and non-family members in times of distress and including them in the support of the injured person is compulsory for maximum results. There may be times when family members are estranged. Such a situation would not automatically preclude these members from being notified or asked to help. Only when there is no interest on the the part of the estranged family member and the injured party should they not be included. Any serous physical or psychological incident like this must be handled with kid gloves.
Thus saith the LORD against all mine evil neighbours, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit ; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them. (Jeremiah 12:14) Another, and really very crucial part of the critical incident stress management plan concerns the future of the individuals involved. If the trauma suffered was so great that the person could not possibly return to work as usual (even after an extended period of recuperation) there may be a need for retraining, financial support of some nature, and even perhaps long-term care. All of the person's needs must be met somehow. Various tragedies have happened around the world that have left people, families, and companies devastated. Unless a critical incident stress management plan is comprehensive, it will do little to impact it's overall purpose. People who volunteer, or are paid, to handle crisis must be willing, able, and ready for every twist and turn of events that is possible under these circumstances.
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