Critical Incident Stress Debriefings
Critical Incident Stress Debriefings or CISD are debriefings that happen after a stressful event. These can be many different stressful crisis situations or traumatic events that have an acutely negative effect for those involved or affected whether on site in their work environment or off site. Examples are a death in the work place either natural / accidental / suicidal / homicidal, an assault or a robbery with or with out injuries, downsizing, or restructuring or a company buy out or assault etc. Typically when employees are exposed to an event of this magnitude their work performance significantly suffers as people are in shock and adjusting to the impact of the changes. The best way to address the situation is for employers to give their employees and managers the opportunity to discuss the incident with trained psychologist facilitators to get people talking again so they can progress through the stages as quickly as possible .Research shows that those companies that have on site debriefings after a stressful or crisis event have less sick calls from employees after crisis incidents and employees are able to return to work sooner and performance standards are restored much faster than without any emergency interventions.
Consultation with management personnel after crisis incidents help managers make decisions about press releases or how to handle the crisis and make announcements on behalf of the employer or management. Consultation services can be provided by phone as well as on site. I have worked as a psychologist and a trained facilitator with over 14 years of experience providing Critical incident Stress Debriefings for a variety of companies and would be glad to be of service to you locally should the need arise. Feel free to call me at my office:
Lynn Hardy at Hardy and Stephens Counseling Associates 763-633-5111.