Hi Pearl. Critical Incident Stress Debriefing was initiated in the late 90s by a former firefighter, now psychologist, Dr. Jeffrey Mitchell and his partner, Dr. George Everly. As a firefighter, he observed that his comrades were frequently stressed by super-traumatic events on the job like his chief, who had to carry out the charred body of an infant, a victim of an arson fire. Mitchell developed CISD to help emergency first responders – and corrections officer like you – cope with this horrible incidents. The purpose of CISD is to "normalize" the traumatic experience; anyone would feel stressed after events like these and this is completely normal. CISD helps prevent the development of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The debriefings are completely confidential. Facilitators – like me – ask only that participants tell who they are, whats their job, and what happened from their point of view. No one is forced to participate. CISD is a remarkably effective tool for all line of duty trauma. Dr. Mitchell knows – because hes been there.

Tell you what: Ill write an article on CISD and put it in the article section so you and others can read more about it. I encourage you to take the training! I was trained by Dr. Mitchell himself and have done 30+ debriefings. Dont pass up this chance!

Margaret