The ICISF Model of Critical Incident Stress Management is in use by over 300 registered CISM Peer Support Teams in North America and around the world.
[5] They are: While any person may experience a critical incident, conventional wisdom says that members of law enforcement, fire fighting units, and emergency medical services are at great risk for experiencing traumatic events.
The purpose of a defusing is to assist groups in coping in the short term, address acute needs, facilitate a normalization of any symptoms that arise, and bring awareness of available resources if difficulties are encountered.
Critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) is a controversial component of CISM, and research suggests it may cause harm.
[7][8][9][10] The International Critical Incident Stress Foundation rejects these claims, writing that "There is no extant evidence to argue that the “Mitchell model” CISD, or the CISM system, has proven harmful!
The investigations that are frequently cited to suggest such an adverse effect simply did not use the CISD or CISM system as prescribed, a fact that is too often ignored".
[15] The final step was to follow up with them the day after the debriefing to ensure that they are safe and coping well or to refer the individual for professional counselling.
The debriefing process (defined by the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation [ICISF]) has seven steps: introduction of intervenor and establishment of guidelines and invites participants to introduce themselves (while attendance at a debriefing may be mandatory, participation is not); details of the event given from individual perspectives; emotional responses given subjectively; personal reaction and actions; followed again by a discussion of symptoms exhibited since the event; instruction phase where the team discusses the symptoms and assures participants that any symptoms (if they have any at all) are a normal reaction to an abnormal event and "generally" these symptoms will diminish with time and self-care; following a brief period of shared informal discussion (generally over a beverage and treat) resumption of duty where individuals are returned to their normal tasks.
[citation needed] A 2002 workshop whose goal was to reach consensus on the mental health response to mass violence recommended ending use of the word "debriefing" in reference to critical incident interventions.
[23] Recent evidence-based reviews have concluded that CISM is ineffective and sometimes harmful for both primary and secondary victims,[24] such as responding emergency services personnel.
This is in contrast to the ICISF Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) which is one of the group intervention tools used in the CISM continuum of care and not intended or recommended for use with individuals.