Literature Review: Critical Incident Stress Debriefing

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Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) is simply psychological first aid done typically within the first 24 to 48 hours, of an incident to individuals who have been exposed to a severe psychological trauma. To understand what CISD is you have to understand some terms. First there has to be a “Crisis”. This is defined as an acute emotional reaction to a powerful stimulus. For this literature review I will be focusing on seconded there is “Crisis Intervention” this is temporary, but active in support groups called “peer-to-peer” intervention. Finally, The overall goals CISD is to mitigate the impact of and event facilitate normal recovery to individuals who are having normal reactions to abnormal events, and restoration to adaptive functions. …show more content…

Nevertheless, CISD was used in post-debriefings for first responders involved in the Oklahoma City bombing, Waco Texas compound, and the World Trade Center Attacks. Agencies across the United States, including Federal, State and local jurisdictions participate in CISD as a part of a standard protocol. A number of authors have published papers advocating the support of peer programs after a posttraumatic event. They also suggest pre-event mental conditioning is the key to officer 's survival when an event occurs. Those conditioning techniques include training that will prepare the mind and body for big stresses. Basically, police officers that adequately train for violent encounters also, should also be adequately trained to encounter a critical incident. “An untrained officer’s response to a crisis will result in strong unrestrained emotions and fragile control techniques. The officer will be overwhelmed from the critical incident. Yet, if the officer has received, proper training to prepare him mentally and physically they will be better equipped to handle the stress”. Remsberg

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