Office of Work-Life Programs -
Critical Incident Stress Response Program
Call the Employee Assistance Program Coordinator (EAPC) in your regional Health,
Safety, and Work-Life (HSWL) office to access Critical Incident Stress
Response (CISR) services.
List of EAPCs.
To access the CG SUPRT Program, call 1-855-CGSUPRT (247-8778)
Who is Eligible for this Program?
The Critical Incident Stress Response
program is applicable to the following members of Team Coast Guard:
- Active Duty, Reservists and their dependents
- Civil Service employees
- Exchange
System and MWR employees
Purpose of Program
The Critical Incident Stress Response (CISR) program is
intended to help individuals exposed to critical incidents to identify and
cope with their responses to these events. The focus of CISM is to provide
“psychological first aid” and to minimize the harmful affects of job stress,
particularly in crisis or emergency situations. Critical Incident Stress
Response includes pre-incident training and post-incident services.
Program Confidentiality
The Employee Assistance Program Coordinator will ensure
CISR confidentiality and effectiveness. No team member shall make any
written notes during or about a CISR intervention. An after action report
may be used by team members only to discuss at team meetings as to lessons
learned about the intervention process. The after action report shall be
very generic and shall not include names or any specifics about the
intervention.
Definitions
The following definitions apply to Critical Incident Stress Response
Program:
- Critical Incident - Any event with sufficient impact to produce significant
emotional reactions now or later. It is generally considered extremely
unusual in the range of ordinary human experiences. Examples of critical
incidents include the following:
- Crew members death in line of duty
- Children’s
death or serious injury
- Multiple fatalities or seriously injured
survivors
- Suicide, successful or attempted
- Natural disasters
- Class A or B
mishaps involving death or permanent injury and otherwise high emotional
impact
- Use of deadly force
- Grotesque injuries
- Acts of terrorism
- Acts of violence
resulting in injury or death
- Observing any traumatic event
- Critical Incident Response Team - The Critical
Incident Response team normally consists of:
- Team Coordinator (usually EAPC)
- Health Safety and Work-Life Service
Center, WL Division (in large scale high visibility
events)
- Chaplain, and
- Peers, all of whom have been trained in
Critical Incident Peer Support.
The EAPC coordinates, manages, and deploys the CISM Team.
- Psychological First Aid - The basic
human responses of comfort and consoling a distressed person; protecting a
person from further threat or distress, as far as is possible; furnishing
immediate care for physical necessities, including shelter; providing goal
orientation and support for specific reality based tasks (“reinforcing the
concrete world”); facilitating reunion with loved ones from whom the
individual has been separated; facilitating some telling of the “trauma
story” and ventilation of feelings as appropriate for the particular
individual; linking the person to systems of support and sources of help
that will be ongoing; facilitating the beginning of some sense of mastery;
and identifying the need for further counseling or intervention. (Raphael et
al., 1996, pp. 466–467)
Requesting Services or Resources
CRITICAL INCIDENT REPORTING
To request CISR services, commanding officers and officers in charge can
notify either the area or district command center, which will in turn notify
the Health, Safety, and Work-Life Office in your region. In general, CISR services or resources can be obtained
by contacting the Employee Assistance Program Coordinator (EAPC) on your
Regional Work-Life Office. Work-Life Staffs are located at Integrated Support
Commands CG-wide and at the Headquarters Support Command.
Program References
The following reference provides details of the Critical
Incident Stress Management Program:
Related Web Sites
The following web sites provide information related to the
Critical Incident Stress Response Program:
- American Red Cross - Provides disaster-related information and
resources. Includes a
Disaster Online Newsroom on current
disasters.
-
Army Study To Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers
(STARRS) - Army STARRS is the largest study of mental health
risk and resilience ever conducted among military personnel.
This site already has many resources and links worth exploring
and promises to add more over the 5-year span of this important
study.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) -
Emergency
Preparedness and Response. This site includes links on each type
of natural disaster: earthquakes, extreme heat, floods,
hurricanes, landslides and mudslides, tornadoes, tsunamis,
volcanoes, wildfires, and winter weather. Very comprehensive
with lots of useful just-in-time information.
-
Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress - Provides a wealth
of information helpful to both individuals and communities
dealing with the effects of critical incidents. Includes an
excellent collection of just-in-time
fact sheets.
-
Defense Centers of Excellence (DCoE) for Psychological
Health and Brain Injury - DCoE’s mission: assesses, validates,
oversees and facilitates prevention, resilience, identification,
treatment, outreach, rehabilitation, and reintegration programs
for psychological health and traumatic brain injury to ensure
the Department of Defense meets the needs of the nation's
military communities, warriors and families. This site has many
helpful links related to assisting persons impacted by critical
incidents.
-
Employee Assistance Program
Coordinator (EAPC) - The EAPC within HSWL is
responsible for coordinating responses, in collaboration with
appropriate commands.
-
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) - The Federal
government’s main website for current disaster-related
information. Contains many pages of useful information and
links.
-
Incident Management Handbook - Click on Library > Incident
Command System > scroll to Job Aids.
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
(NIOSH) - Phone: 1-800-35-NIOSH. Provides many resources on the
subjects of Workplace Safety and Health including Emergency
Preparedness and Response.
-
Navy Operational Stress Control (OSC) Official Blog Site -
Has tips and ideas for controlling stress. Be sure to scroll to
the cartoons. This is a new site that will be developed further.
Note: the social media links do not work on CG computers.
-
Psychological First Aid: Field Operations Guide
- this site
is sponsored by the Veterans Administration’s National Center
for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It provides a wealth of
just-in-time information including a great collection of
related
handouts.
-
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMSHA) - This Department of Health and Human Services website
offers plenty of Mental Health and CISM-related resources
including separate pages on Disaster Readiness and Response, the
National Center for Trauma-Informed Care, and Suicide
Prevention.
Point of Contact
The Employee Assistance Program Coordinator within HSWL is responsible for
coordinating responses, in collaboration with appropriate commands. Click
here
to find the number to your EAPC. If you need additional assistance, contact
the Headquarters Chief, Behavioral Health Service Division, CDR Elizabeth
Fielder, CG-1111, at 202-372-1599 or email at
Elizabeth.A.Fielder@uscg.mil.