ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION DISASTER MENTAL HEALTH INSTITUTE
Learning From The Past and Planning For The Future
Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute
INTRODUCTION
Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) and Critical Incident Stress Debriefings are essential and especially important following critical incidents and their aftermath. They have become more evident and important within the past two years - 911 and, within just a few days, Laramie and Wyoming experienced the tragic deaths of student athletes; the 2002 wildfire season in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming was the worst in over 50 years with significant losses of property and lives (firefighters and slurry bombers in Colorado).
Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM)/Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD), disaster mental health, traumatology, coping with terrorist activities, and other emergency interventions with first responders and other affected persons have become very important in recent years in the United States. The numbers of people affected and the cost for caring for and losing the services of such persons (first responders, etc.) has become significant. These costs include:
- loss of experienced personnel
- costs for training replacement personnel
There is a need to determine what characteristics constitute resilience among first responders because, if this knowledge was available, new strategies could be developed that would help non-resilient responders cope with traumatic events more effectively. The limited numbers of available trained personnel in small and rural communities in the Rocky Mountain Region make it imperative that cost-effective, economic approaches be developed and applied in order to keep those affected personnel on the job and to help prevent post-traumatic stress from depleting our vital resources.
MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of the Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute is the promotion, development, and application of practice, research, and training in disaster mental health, Critical Incident Stress Management, traumatology and other emergency response interventions and the promotion of community awareness. This includes hazards vulnerability and mitigation research.
HISTORY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION DISASTER MENTAL HEALTH INSTITUTE
The Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute has provided training, workshops and conferences to disaster mental health professionals, first responders, and other mental health professionals since 1998. Some of the conferences and workshops sponsored and presented have included:
- the 1999 Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Conference (February 11-14,1999 - University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY) - Conference Proceedings are online at:
https://www.angelfire.com/biz/odochartaigh/conference.html
and articles by presenters at this conference appear in two special editions of the online journal Traumatologye at:
http://www.fsu.edu/~trauma Volume 5, nos. 2,3.
Well over 180 attendees took part from 21 states, Washington, D.C., and four foreign countries.);
- ICISF Courses in Basic and Advanced CISM (University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY - February, 1999; University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY - November, 2001; Casper, WY - November, 2002);
- Religious Aspects of Domestic Violence (Casper, WY - November, 2002).
The Spring Workshop Series for 2003 will present a series of five workshops in Laramie:
- Religious Aspects of Domestic Violence;
- Crisis Counseling, Trauma, and Response: A Multi-level Approach:
Level One - Crisis Counseling Principles and Practices;
Level Two - Crisis and Trauma Intervention for Professionals;
Level Three - Short and Long Term Intervention for Supervisors;
- Recognizing and Responding to Suicide Risk.
Additional workshops on Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM)through ICISF ar planned for Fall 2003 in both Laramie and Casper, WY. A Conference on Disaster Mental Health, Trauma and CISM is being planned for 2004.
PROBLEMS TO BE ADDRESSED:
- Rural areas of the Rocky Mountain Region (Wyoming, Montana, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado) have many small communities and towns that have limited mental health services and, in particular, have very few, if any resources available for: CISM, CISD, traumatology and coping with terrorism training opportunities via workshops and/or conferences for CEUs at reasonable costs for professionals of all kinds.
- In order to gain training, experience, and CEUs, they must travel relatively far distances at various times of the year with weather always a major factor. The same that is true for workshops is also true for conferences and other networking opportunities.
- Networking is very difficult, as is team-building. Interdisciplinary workshops and training, especially in the areas of CISM, CISD, disaster mental health, trauma and coping with terrorism are relatively rare and difficult to accomplish due to availability, distances involved, and associated costs that can be prohibitive.
- Effectiveness of interventions in response to local and regional disasters, critical incidents and other traumatic events in the rural west remain under-researched at best. For example, evidence-based approaches to the aftermath of critical incidents (CISD with first responders) has a limited number of empirically-based outcome studies available. There are virtually none that evaluate the effectiveness of such interventions in small communities and other rural areas in the Rocky Mountain Region.
- Availability of professionals and peers trained in CISD/CISM, disaster mental health, traumatology, and coping with terrorism in small communities and rural areas is limited at best.
- Unless they are part of a larger business/industry or major governmental agency, most businesses, industries, agencies, etc. located in small communities and rural areas have little or no access to such training or services.
- The ability to network among professionals and peers outside of one’s immediate community is generally limited due to geography and distance. This makes it difficult to follow-up even after a training event. It also is difficult to develop relationships among professionals, peers and others.
GOALS
In order to address the problems identified, the Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute has the following major goals in the Rocky Mountain Region:
- Develop, promote and present training programs and workshops in disaster mental health, disaster response, critical incident management and debriefing, traumatology, and how to cope with terrorism and terrorist activities psychologically which are recognized statewide, regionally and nationally for their quality.
- Provide training in Disaster Mental Health, Critical Incident Stress Management, Critical Incident Stress Debriefing, traumatology, and how to cope with terrorism and terrorist activities for mental health professionals, peers and other first responders and those interested in and involved in this emerging field of mental health and who respond to critical incidents and other emergencies, disasters and trauma producing events.
- Obtain and provide Continuing Education Credits and/or graduate college credits for all professions (e.g. Wyoming Psychological Association, Wyoming Counseling Association, POST, Nursing, EMTs, etc) taking training through the Institute.
- Provide consultation to private corporations, states, municipalities, school districts and other groups and organizations to assist them in the development of Disaster Mental Health, Critical Incident Stress Management, trauma prevention programs, intervention plans and follow-up activities.
- Train emergency Disaster Mental Health, Critical Incident Stress Management, and Trauma Response Teams to conduct interventions for corporations, states, and municipalities in the Rocky Mountain Region.
- Support, coordinate and disseminate research and training in disaster mental health, Critical Incident Stress Management and Debriefing, Traumatology, and how to cope with reactions to terrorist threats and acts through the acquisition of grants and contracts, and through consultation with other research teams. Provide workshops and full conferences on these and other related topics.
- Support and coordinate the network of mental health professionals, peers and other first responders trained through the Institute who are prepared to respond to disasters, emergencies, critical incidents, terrorist acts, and other traumas in the Rocky Mountain Region.
- Support, maintain and expand the Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute websites on disaster mental health, Critical Incident Stress Management and Debriefing, Traumatology, emergencies, and coping with terrorist acts.
- Provide articles, research results, brochures, pamphlets, and other information on above areas in both printed format and online for dissemination to mental health professionals, first responder peers, businesses and industry, state and local governmental and private agencies as needed.
- Provide online training opportunities via the internet (online workshops, courses, interactions, etc.) for Continuing Education Credits for mental health professionals, first responders, and related personnel.
- Provide live interactive workshops, trainings and consultation via video-conferencing to mental health professionals, first responders, and related personnel in rural areas and smaller communities.
WHAT WILL BE DONE?
WORKSHOPS
Workshops and other training/educational activities will be developed and presented by two methods:
- Through research, development and production by Institute staff for specific topics. These workshops will disseminate ongoing research information, provide training in areas not covered by other certifying groups, provide follow-up training, and provide onsite, video, email, and website consultations for small groups and individuals. Workshops will also be developed to assist with team building activities.
- Presenters will be contracted with from other sources to provide workshops for various topics along with certifications through various groups/foundations/organizations who have already developed training programs and certification processes (e.g. The International Critical Incident Stress Foundation - ICISF, NOVA, Green Cross, etc.). Eventually, the Institute will develop a corps of trained trainers from each of these sources that can be available to do training within the Rocky Mountain Region.
CONFERENCES
Conferences will be presented on a regular basis (at least one per year) that will address each area of interest and disseminate research and other information. Presenters will be drawn from regional, national and international sources in order to provide expert input and information to registrants on the latest and most up-to-date information available. The Institute will make available conference proceedings through printed format, online dissemination, and audio tapes.
COLLOQUIA
An additional emphasis will be to present monthly colloquia during which those involved in application, research, publication, and training can present short up-dated topics of interest. This will be accomplished by those who are working for and/or with the Institute in various capacities and will usually last from 1-2 hours each.
CONSULTATION
The Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute will develop model protocols for interventions (e.g. CISD, trauma, disaster mental health interventions, etc.) that can be adapted through consultation to meet local conditions and resources.
Consultation activities will include providing assistance with team building, development of local protocols, how to assess outcomes effectively without compromising confidentiality or other activities, follow-ups to training, video-conferencing, web sites, email consultations with groups and/or individuals, on-site visits to assist with networking activities, etc.
RESEARCH
The Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute will develop research methodology and tools to assess the efficacy of various protocols and to assess the outcome of various interventions with those involved (e.g. CISD) in order to refine and improve them as well as to pass along evidence-based research results to others in the field.
Areas to be researched will include:
- Effectiveness of training
- Evidence-based approaches
- What works and what doesn’t?
Initial Activities will include the following:
- Determine the frequencies of critical incidents in rural and small communities in the Rocky Mountain Region.
- Determine the current frequencies of CISDs performed in rural and small communities in the Rocky Mountain Region following critical incidents.
- Determine the frequencies of CISDs performed for first responders, schools, other groups in rural and small communities in the Rocky Mountain Region.
- Evaluate the outcome and effectiveness of a specific intervention protocol used with first responders, schools, other groups in rural and small communities in the Rocky Mountain Region.
Outcomes of CISM/CISD interventions is difficult to measure and there is limited empirical data available to support or not support its effectiveness. There is next to none available for major rural areas and small towns in the western United States.
Other types of interventions in the areas of disaster mental health, traumatology, reactions to terrorist activities, and other emergency interventions will be assessed and researched in a similar manner.
The long-term goal includes training emergency Disaster Mental Health teams and CISM teams to conduct interventions for corporations, states and municipalities in the Rocky Mountain region and to evaluate their effectiveness in reducing the effects of trauma on first responders and others.
FUNDING
In order to achieve the above goals, the Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute will require funding for equipment, personnel, travel, presenter expenses, lodging expenses, office space, conference and workshop expenses, and other activities.
Copyright 2002
