TO ACCESS A TEAM:

The PCPA CISM Team is available 24 hours per day, seven day per week.  For assistance or information, please call:

During normal business hours:

PCPA
(717) 236-1059

After business hours:

PEMA
717-651-2001

Jeff Bare
(717) 805-4309 (cellular)

Chief Richard Malwitz
(717) 648-0584 (cellular)

Please indicate that you are requesting the PCPA CISM Team.

PCPA CISM Team Services

Services provided by the CISM program includes:

Pre-Crisis Preparation/Training

Educational, informational, and in-service programs for police officers and their supervisors.

On-Scene Support

Team may observe, watch for acute reactions, provide support, encouragement and be able to help resting personnel and command deal with stress reactions.

Demobilization

Short, informational sessions with personnel as they leave the scene of a long duration, critical incident.

Defusings

Short version of critical incident stress debriefing which occurs within a few hours following a critical incident.

Debriefing

A confidential, non-evaluative discussion of involvement, thoughts and feelings resulting from a critical incident.

Individual Crisis Intervention (one-on-one)

Peer to peer intervention used to mitigate the symptoms of critical incidents.

Pastoral Crisis Intervention

Provides spiritual, faith-based support for individuals and groups.

Family Support

For the police officer’s family members and significant others.

Follow-Up/Referrals

Follow up contact from the team and/or referral to mental health professionals if needed.

Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM)

Critical Incident Stress Management is a comprehensive, systematic, and multi-component approach to managing traumatic stress within an organization. It is designed to maintain and enhance the health of an organization’s personnel. It is an essential part of good management of any organization. CISM is not a form of psychotherapy nor is it a substitute for psychotherapy. In fact, CISM works best because it is a peer managed and peer operated support program, which utilizes mental health service personnel for their guidance and expertise. Specially trained peer support personnel provide most of the operations support services for their fellow workers, but they do so with the guidance of Mental Health professionals.

Stress and the Police Officer

Police officers in Pennsylvania and throughout the Nation face stressful events every day. The work they choose to perform can be emotionally draining, physically difficult and a threat to their personal safety. Yet this same work is seen as extremely rewarding, sometimes exciting and a method for fulfilling some personal needs.

The work still presents the police officer with a constant low to moderate level of stress and an occasional dose of high level stress.  Left unchecked, these stressors can build up over time and develop unhealthy emotions and behaviors.

 Critical Incidents Defined

A critical incident is any situation faced by police officers that causes them to experience unusually strong emotional reactions which have the potential to interfere with their ability to function either at the scene or later.

Some examples of critical incidents include: suicide, death of a fellow officer, serious injury to an officer, media interest in a event, prolonged events, injury or death of children, mass casualty incidents, threats to officer’s safety, and natural disasters. 

Recognizing Critical Incident Stress

Critical incidents may produce a wide range of stress symptoms, which can appear immediately at the scene, a few hours later or within a few days of the event.

The more symptoms experienced, the more powerful the stress reaction can be. The longer the symptoms last, the more potential there is for permanent harm to the officer.

When to Request the PCPA CISM Team

You should feel free to call the PCPA Team about the need for services any time you or one of your fellow officers are having difficulty dealing with an incident or when the nature of the incident suggests that intervention might be useful.

Stress Symptoms

The following are examples of stress symptoms that can appear during or after a critical incident:

Cognitive (thinking)

Poor concentration; Memory problems; Poor attention span; Slowed problem solving; Difficulty making decisions and calculation

Emotional (feelings)

Depression; Grief; Guilt; Anxiety/Fear; Feeling lost/overwhelmed; Loss of emotional control

Physical (body)

Muscle tremors; Chest pain; Headaches; Difficulty breathing; Elevated blood pressure

Behavioral (actions)

Excessive silence; Sleep disturbance; Unusual behavior; Withdrawal from contact; Changes in eating and work habits

CISD—Critical Incident Stress Debriefing

When a CISD is conducted, you should expect two to four team members to be present. The teams consist of peer support and mental health personnel. All members of the team have been highly trained in the CISD process according  to standards set by the ICISF.

A CISD is a group interaction where a team of trained officers enable their peers to talk about their actions, thoughts and reactions to a traumatic stress event.

A CISD is not group therapy and is not a critique of the event. The information shared in a debriefing is strictly confidential. A CISD is a time to learn what are normal expected behaviors and feelings following a stressful event and to receive assurance that you are experiencing a normal reaction to an abnormal event.

Objective

The main objective of a debriefing is the restoration of human dignity and self-worth to people who are experiencing normal reactions and normal symptoms of distress because they were exposed to an abnormal event—a Critical Incident.

For more information on this program, questions or to volunteer (if you are ICISF Certified), contact Jeff Bare at (717) 236-1059.