Central Coast Critical Incident Stress Management Training

The Central Coast Critical Incident Stress Management Team (CISM) has two trainings.

The Individual Crisis Intervention and Peer Support

Course will be held: Thursday, February 19 and Friday, February 20. from  8:30 AM – 4:30 PM by trainer: Diane Myers, RN, MSN, CTS.

The Individual Crisis Intervention and Peer Support course will teach peer support skills taught that constitute crisis intervention skills. Crisis intervention is sometimes called “psychological first-aid." Crisis interventions are typically done individually (one-on-one) or in groups. This program is designed to teach participants the fundamentals of individual peer support, and a specific model for providing peer support. The audience for this class includes emergency services, military, and business/industrial peer support personnel without formal training in mental health, as well as mental health professionals who desire to increase their knowledge of individual (one-on-one) crisis intervention techniques. (13 Contact Hours)

In recent years, it has been widely recognized that there are many stressors that can affect emergency service personnel. As early as the 1950s in Boston and Chicago, police departments recognized alcohol-related issues that were affecting the job performance of police officers.  Peer programs were developed to help fellow officers.  The New York City Police Department began their peer program in 1966, with the Los Angeles PD developing their peer support program in 1981. Over the succeeding years, peer support has evolved into much more than support for alcohol-related issues.  Today peer supporters in law enforcement, fire, EMS departments, dispatch, emergency management, and the military are used for a variety of situations on-duty.  These may include death notifications, line of duty death, fatal transportation accidents, disasters, and other critical incidents—any type of situation that could result in an employee suffering acute emotional distress. But peer support is much more.  It is also beneficial to help employees through personal crises in their lives, such as divorce, illness, death of a loved one, etc. (California Peer Support Association, 2008)

The topics listed below will be covered over the course of two days. The class will include lecture, slides, discussion, DVD, experiential exercises, and skill practice.  

• The need for peer support and crisis intervention in emergency services
• The concept of Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) as a comprehensive peer support and crisis intervention program
• Review of relevant literature and research on peer support and crisis intervention
• The SEA-3 method of evaluating a distressed individual
• Recognizing signs and symptoms of distress and the usefulness of peer support
• Peer support communication techniques 
• Do no harm! Things to avoid in helping others
• Exercises: skill practice in peer intervention
• Mechanisms of action in crisis work
• SAFER protocol for supporting individuals in distress
• Suicide: a special case
• Special challenges and common problems encountered while working with individuals in crisis

The Group Crisis Intervention and Peer Support

This two-day course prepares participants to understand a wide range of crisis intervention services, including pre- and post-incident crisis education, significant other support services, on-scene support services, crisis intervention for individuals, demobilizations after large-scale traumatic incidents, small group defusings and the group intervention known as Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD). This is one of the three courses required for anyone who wishes to be a member of CAMFT’s Trauma Response Network. For reservation information, contact Sean Armstrong at (408) 235-0210 or via e-mail at mail@scv-camft.org. For information on the workshop, please contact Mary Kay Bigelow at (650) 948-3400.