CISM meetings

The concept of Critical Incident Stress Management meetings was developed by Dr. Jeffery Mitchell, a former firefighter para-medic. Other benefits of CISM meetings are to provide facts about the incident and give personnel a change to ventilate their feelings, at the same time understand what normal reactions are. The meetings also provide a chance for personnel to gain mutual support, enhancing group and organizational cohesiveness. In addition the meetings reduce stigma and allow personnel to access professional help sooner than otherwise, which is particularly relevant when Post Traumatic Stress Disorder type symptoms develop.

The facilitators of CISM meetings are not health professionals but members of the same emergency service, who volunteer for the training and are prepared to give their time to help others. The idea of using facilitators from the same organization is that they are more likely to understand complexities of the job. They are also less likely to be seen as threatening mental health workers and the meeting is more likely to keep withing the boundaries of its aims and less likely to become a group therapy session.

A good facilitator should be someone who has good coping resources and understands their own reactions, also able to communicate well and fairly experienced within the organization. Individuals who get too emotionally involved with others are likely to become personally affected by others’ difficulties, and facilitators who are too rigid in their thinking may be judgemental of others. Once trained, a facilitator needs to be able to rely on the support of the organization and refresher training.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-20