Dustin K MacDonald

Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Economic and Community Development
  • Nonprofit Management
    • Counselling and Service Delivery
    • Suicide Prevention / Crisis Intervention
  • Politics and Governance
  • Math and Statistics
  • Salesforce
Menu

Critical Incident Stress (CIS) Management

Posted on June 20, 2016November 25, 2018 by Dustin

Table of Contents

Introduction

Critical incident stress (CIS) management is the process of managing the response after a critical incident at work that causes employee stress. (Caine, & Ter-Bagdasarian, 2003) In a 911 communications environment this could be hearing a call where you’re not able to respond before someone dies of a medical injury, listening to a suicide or homicide in progress, or other events that have the potential to overwhelm an individual’s coping skills.

After an initial traumatic event or critical incident, an acute stress disorder may develop. If these symptoms (numbing, reduced awareness, derealization) continue for more than 4 weeks a client may meet the definition for PTSD. (Gibson, 2016) Approximately 20% of individuals who experience a trauma will go on to develop PTSD. (Norris, et. al., 2002)

The goal of CIS Maangement (CISM) is to short-circuit this process in people exposed to secondary trauma in order to ensure the best outcome for the individual. For primary victims of trauma CISM is ineffective. (Jacobs, Horne-Moyer & Jones, 2004)

CISM is generally broken into three categories (Guenthner, 2012):

  • Primary Interventions, which focus on promoting health and resilience in employees in the absence of any critical incident
  • Secondary Interventions, which focus on the immediate steps after the crisis
  • Tertiary Interventions, for individuals who are experiencing symptoms of PTSD

Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Process

Blacklock (2012) identified the steps of the CISM process. The first step of the CISM process is diffusing. Diffusing is limited to individuals who were directly involved in the trauma (e.g. the first responders at an accident scene) so that they can begin the process of ventilating emotion. Individuals are provided with a telephone line to call or other resource they can reach out to and make sure they will be okay for the remainder of their shift.

The second step in the CISM process is debriefing. This should be done within 72 hours with all staff directly or indirectly involved being allowed to attend. Mitchell (1983) identified seven steps to the CISM Debrief which are listed in the next section.

Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD)

The following table comes from Blacklock (2012) who cited it from Mitchell (1983):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other CISM Interventions

Pulley (2005) identifies additional activities including:

  • Crisis management briefing, where large groups of individuals affected by a trauma are brief on the crisis
  • Family support – Providing the family of an emergency worker with practical supports to assist in the CISM process
  • Assessment/consultation – On an organizational level, additional support is provided by larger organizations (such as the Tema Conter Memorial Trust) to help identify appropriate referrals
  • Follow-up and referral – The organization follows up with affected individuals to identify any unmet needs and performs case management to help them access new supports.
  • Mutual aid – Finally, other individuals who have previously experienced trauma provide peer support to help everyone work through their symptoms.

CISM/CISD Training

The Canadian Critical Incident Stress Foundation provides individual and group training that meets the requirements of the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF). Online CISM Training is also offered online through the ICISF.

Bibliography

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-IV-TR. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

Blacklock, E. (2012) Interventions Following a Critical Incident: Developing a Critical Incident Stress Management Team. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing. 2-8.

Caine, R., & Ter-Bagdasarian, L. (2003). Advanced practice. Early identification and management of critical incident stress. Critical Care Nurse, 23(1), 59-65 7p.

Gibson, L.E. (2016) Acute Stress Disorder. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Center for PTSD. Accessed electronically on Sun May 22, 2016 from http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treatment/early/acute-stress-disorder.asp

Guenthner, D. H. (2012). Emergency and crisis management: Critical incident stress management for first responders and business organisations. Journal Of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning, 5(4), 298-315.

Jacobs, J. Horne-Moyer, H.L., Jones, R. (2004) The effectiveness of critical incident stress debriefing with primary and secondary trauma victims. International Jounal of Emergency Mental Health. 6(1):5-14

Norris, F.H., Friedman, M.J., Watson, P.J., Byrne, C.M., Diaz, E. & Kaniasty, K (2002). 60,000 disaster victims speak: Part I. An empirical review of the empirical literature, 1981–2001. Psychiatry 65, 207–239.

Pulley, S.A. (2005) Critical Incident Stress Management. Accessed electronically on May 28, 2016 from http://web.archive.org/web/20060811232118/http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic826.htm

Cite this article as: MacDonald, D.K., (2016), "Critical Incident Stress (CIS) Management," retrieved on December 7, 2023 from https://dustinkmacdonald.com/critical-incident-stress-cis-management/.

1 thought on “Critical Incident Stress (CIS) Management”

  1. Pingback: Law Enforcement Suicide Prevention - Dustin K MacDonald

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Privacy Policy

See here for our privacy policy. This site uses affiliate links and Adsense ads to provide targeted advertising.

Tags

analytical technique assessment communication community development counselling crisis chat crisis intervention data science eastern university economic development education empathy evaluation forecasting fundraising governance information technology intelligence intelligence analysis keokuk county language learning legal management peer support personal development phd politics professional development protective factors psychosocial risk factors safety planning salesforce sigourney social media statistics suicide suicide assessment suicide risk assessment technology terrorism training university of the cumberlands violence risk assessment youth

Recommended Posts

  • Conducting Psychosocial Assessments
  • DCIB Model of Suicide Risk Assessment
  • ABC Model of Crisis Intervention
  • My Friend is Suicidal - What do I do?

Recent Posts

  • ITS833 Information Governance
  • Enhanced Care Management (ECM) with Salesforce
  • ITS835 Enterprise Risk Management
  • Glorifind Christian Search Engine
  • Sigourney Iowa Election Results, 2023

Archives

  • November 2023 (6)
  • October 2023 (1)
  • September 2023 (3)
  • August 2023 (1)
  • July 2023 (1)
  • May 2023 (1)
  • March 2023 (1)
  • February 2023 (2)
  • January 2023 (4)
  • December 2022 (2)
  • May 2022 (1)
  • April 2022 (2)
  • March 2022 (1)
  • February 2022 (1)
  • December 2021 (1)
  • October 2021 (1)
  • August 2021 (2)
  • May 2021 (3)
  • December 2020 (1)
  • November 2020 (4)
  • July 2020 (1)
  • June 2020 (1)
  • April 2020 (1)
  • March 2020 (4)
  • February 2020 (7)
  • January 2020 (1)
  • November 2019 (1)
  • October 2019 (2)
  • September 2019 (4)
  • August 2019 (2)
  • March 2019 (1)
  • February 2019 (1)
  • January 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (4)
  • November 2018 (3)
  • October 2018 (3)
  • September 2018 (19)
  • October 2017 (2)
  • September 2017 (2)
  • August 2017 (1)
  • July 2017 (39)
  • May 2017 (3)
  • April 2017 (4)
  • March 2017 (4)
  • February 2017 (4)
  • January 2017 (5)
  • December 2016 (4)
  • November 2016 (4)
  • October 2016 (5)
  • September 2016 (4)
  • August 2016 (5)
  • July 2016 (5)
  • June 2016 (5)
  • May 2016 (3)
  • April 2016 (2)
  • March 2016 (2)
  • February 2016 (2)
  • January 2016 (4)
  • December 2015 (2)
  • November 2015 (2)
  • October 2015 (2)
  • September 2015 (2)
  • August 2015 (1)
  • June 2015 (2)
  • May 2015 (5)
  • April 2015 (3)
  • March 2015 (8)
  • February 2015 (12)
  • January 2015 (28)

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Recent Comments

  • Dustin on Starting a Crisis Line or Hotline
  • HAPPINESSHEALTHCOURAGE, LLC on Starting a Crisis Line or Hotline
  • ITS833 Information Governance - Dustin K MacDonald on University of the Cumberlands PhD in Information Technology
  • Elected Officials in Sigourney, Iowa - Dustin K MacDonald on Sigourney Iowa Election Results, 2023
  • ITS 835 Enterprise Risk Management - Dustin K MacDonald on University of the Cumberlands PhD in Information Technology

Tags

analytical technique assessment communication community development counselling crisis chat crisis intervention data science eastern university economic development education empathy evaluation forecasting fundraising governance information technology intelligence intelligence analysis keokuk county language learning legal management peer support personal development phd politics professional development protective factors psychosocial risk factors safety planning salesforce sigourney social media statistics suicide suicide assessment suicide risk assessment technology terrorism training university of the cumberlands violence risk assessment youth
© 2023 Dustin K MacDonald | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme