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Crisis Debriefing

Mitigate The Impact

Respond to critical incidents in your community.

Discussion about Crisis Debriefing started in 2005, when supervisors expressed concern about debriefing staff after an egregious incident and the secondary traumatic stress they experienced. Out of this foundation came a comprehensive training and external debriefing resource that is still going strong today. 

Group therapy session

Training

We offer a two-day Crisis Debriefing training and Advanced Crisis Debriefing to allow further development of skills to new or established teams.

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ROLES & Responsibilities 

Access a helpful guide to understand critical incident stress management (CISM) responsibilities, and how to structure a crisis debriefing team within your agency.

CISM Roles & Responsibilities

external DEBRIEFING 

Already have an established crisis debriefing team but need help from an external agency? We can help.

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Trainings

There are two trainings available for crisis debriefing to understand Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM).

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Crisis Debriefing Training

An intensive two-day training designed to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM). Through a combination of large and small group interventions, scenario practices and discussions on crisis communication and the neurobiology of trauma, participants will learn advanced techniques for managing critical incidents. This course emphasizes practical skills and peer support, ensuring that attendees are well-prepared to handle the emotional and psychological impacts of crisis situations.

Continuing Education Hours: 14 contact hours/1.4 CEUs through the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc. (ICISF)

Cost to Attend
  • Members: $70
  • Partial members and nonmembers: $270
Training Dates & Location

There is no current training date at this time.

Registration

Interested in the next session?

Email Joanne

People having discussion at table
Advanced Crisis Debriefing Training

Review the components of CISM and take a deep dive into group crisis debriefing scenarios to practice your skills.  

Continuing Education Hours: 6.0

Cost to Attend
  • Members: $35
  • Partial members and nonmembers: $135
Training Dates & Location

There is no current training date at this time.

Registration

Interested in the next session?

Email Joanne

External Debriefer Contact List 

We're supporting each other. The counties who helped initiate Crisis Debriefing believed it would be beneficial to support one another and be able to call on debriefers trained from neighboring counties to debrief their staff if there was a critical incident. Each county trained in Crisis Debriefing has an assigned point person and an administrative contact that can be contacted for support, if needed. 

In order to make this resource possible, the BHTP maintains a contact listing of established agency debriefing teams. Each agency indicates their availability for external debriefing on an annual basis.  Upon request, BHTP will provide this contact list to an agency in need, who can then connect with the administrative or point person of their choice.

Example County Policies & Forms 

It is important to have policies and procedures in place that can help create the structure for the crisis debriefing process to work. It is up to each agency to decide how they want to develop their policies. Important points to consider are:

  • What constitutes the need for a debriefing?
  • When is external debriefing needed?
  • Identifying staff to be trained.
  • Ensuring all staff know who to go to if they feel they need debriefing.
  • Incorporating debriefing into new employee orientation.

Is your county new to developing crisis debriefing policies and procedures? Use our online library of crisis debriefing resources from various county agencies to help create your own policies, procedures and forms. Familiarize yourself with the Critical Incident Crisis Debriefing Guidelines to get yourself started.

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Joanne Tulachka

Want to Register?

Reach out to our Training Coordinator, Joanne Tulachka, to indicate your interest in attending a training or developing a Crisis Debriefing team at your agency.

EMaIl JoANNE