While responding to a 3-alarm fire at an apartment complex, you become worried about the physical and emotional well being of your fire department. What can you do to prevent critical incident stress? If some are affected, how do you help them afterward? The assignment must include 600 words and must include a cover page, discussion, conclusion, and references. The paper must be double spaced, type size 12: New Times Roman and be submitted in APA format.

 

Critical Incident Stress Management

Introduction

A critical incident is an event that is sudden, overwhelming, dangerous, or protracted. Such incidence includes fire, bombs, and even catastrophes such as hurricanes or tsunamis. Responding to fire is critical and may even endanger the responders' lives or cause long-term effects such as critical incidence stress or trauma (Swab, 2020). Critical incidence stress management (CISM) helps fire responders prevent critical incidence stress and help manage for those affected by such overwhelming events.

Preventing Critical Incidence Stress

Preparing the response team thoroughly is the best way to prevent critical incidence stress. The stress is psychological; hence it's essential to prepare the responders psychologically before resuming their rescue task. Encouraging the responders to develop a positive working relationship is fundamental in keeping them motivated and collaborate on the task. It is also desirable that as many workers as possible get the training on psychological first aid or at least one worker in the three-response team has accomplished proper training in critical incident stress management. Psychological first aid is vital as it helps individual fire workers to manage the stress when responding to the fire incidence and effectively control their emotions (Swab, 2020). Furthermore, preparations include developing proper procedures of response to the incident. It becomes more stressful if the workers have less idea how to handle the overwhelming situation hence giving them procedures that smoothen the process hence preventing critical incidence stress.

Managing Critical Incidence Stress

In case some of the fire responders are stressed up by the fire incidence, demobilization is a good way to manage the stress among the affected workers. It is a way of calming the workers after an overwhelming incidence (Mitchell, 2020). In this method, the workers are allowed to rest immediately after the incidence, taking a day or two. The manager or a supervisor who wasn’t involved in the incident is allowed to carry out the demobilization process and shares encouraging or motivational information on the important task they have performed. After the workers have been given a motivational talk, they can take some time out to refresh before resuming their normal duties. Through demobilization, a summary of the event is done, and various questions or concerns from the workers involved are raised.

Defusing is another method that can be applied to manage the incidence stress for the responders. This includes the establishment of small support groups to support individuals affected in the event. The purpose of the support groups is to stabilize the workers and give them to share concerns after the incident. The responder’s questions are clarified, and further identification of the responder's needs is made (Mitchell, 2020). Through this process workers are advised in the steps forward, and referrals are done for further support for those who are critically affected. Defusing is mostly done within 12 hours after the incidence. The last step in managing the workers is debriefing. Debriefing is mostly done after seven days by trained debriefers who help the responders take in the incidence in the recovery process. Debriefers give clarity on the incidence as they help the responders to recover from it. Stress can develop over time even after carrying out the three management steps; hence follow-up support is necessary to avoid stress reoccurrence in the future.

Conclusion

In brief, preparing the responders well is the best strategy to prevent critical incidence stress, including training the responders in psychological first aid and training some of the responders in critical incident stress management. If some of the workers will be affected by the fire incidence, it’s necessary to help them by approaches such as demobilization, defusing, debriefing, and close follow-up support. The management applies to all the fire responders, although those critically affected can be taken through defusing and debriefing steps directly.

Outline

• A critical incident is an event that is sudden, overwhelming, dangerous, or protracted.
• Preparing the response team thoroughly is the best way to prevent critical incidence stress.
• It is also desirable that as many workers as possible get the training on psychological first aid or at least one worker in the three-response team has accomplished proper training in critical incident stress management.
• Psychological first aid is vital as it helps individual fire workers to manage the stress when responding to the fire incidence and effectively control their emotions
• In case some of the fire responders are stressed up by the fire incidence, demobilization is a good way to manage the stress among the affected workers.
• Defusing is another method that can be applied to manage the incidence stress for the responders.