Critical Incident Stress Management

Crisis Intervention is NOT psychotherapy; rather, it is a specialized acute emergency mental health intervention which requires specialized training. As physical first aid is to surgery, crisis intervention is to psychotherapy. Thus, crisis intervention is sometimes called “emotional first aid”. This program is designed to teach participants the fundamentals of, and a specific protocol for, individual crisis intervention. This course is designed for anyone who desires to increase their knowledge of individual (one-on-one) crisis intervention techniques in the fields of Business & Industry, Crisis Intervention, Disaster Response, Education, Emergency Services, Employee Assistance, Healthcare, Homeland Security, Mental Health, Military, Spiritual Care, and Traumatic Stress.

Highlights:

• Psychological crisis and psychological crisisintervention
• Resistance, resiliency, recovery continuum
• Critical incident stress management
• Evidence-based practice
• Basic crisis communication techniques
• Common psychological and behavioral crisisreactions
• Putative and empirically-derived mechanisms
• SAFER-Revised model
• Suicide intervention
• Risks of iatrogenic “harm

Designed to present the core elements of a comprehensive, systematic and multi-component crisis intervention curriculum, the Group Crisis Intervention course will prepare participants to understand a wide range of crisis intervention services. Fundamentals of Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) will be outlined and participants will leave with the knowledge and tools to provide several group crisis interventions, specifically demobilizations, defusings and the Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD). The need for appropriate follow-up services and referrals when necessary will also be discussed.

This course is designed for anyone in the fields of Business & Industry Crisis Intervention, Disaster Response, Education, Emergency Services, Employee Assistance, Healthcare, Homeland Security, Mental Health, Military, Spiritual Care, and Traumatic Stress.

Highlights:

• Relevant research findings
• Relevant recommendations for practice
• Incident assessment
• Strategic intervention planning
• “Resistance, resilience, recovery” continuum
• Large group crisis interventions
• Small group crisis interventions
• Adverse outcome associated with crisisintervention
• Reducing risks
• Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD)

This course is designed to aid you in building a personal culture of resilience and holistic health. Our unique approach is intended to help you learn to better manage the stress in your life in order to increase your potential for happiness, success, and even create a competitive advantage through the creation of what we call Psychological Body Armor ™. There is no “quick fix” in this program. It is not designed to be a “pop psych” feel-good course. Rather, this course contains facts and specific suggestions for actions you can take to enhance your personal resilience, all based upon the latest and most credible science.

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Describe the nature of Psychological BodyArmor ™ (PBA)
• Recognize resilient attitudes
• Use physical exercise to strengthen PBA
• Use nutrition to fuel PBA
• Use rest to recharge and restore PBA
• Use interpersonal support
• Understand how spirituality relates to PBA
• Develop a PBA plan