Yesterday, I received a call from the son of a friend of mine. He's a newly-minted EMT-B with a local agency. They had a bad call, and his father advised him to call me.
He was reluctant to attend the CISD that had been scheduled. He thought it might make his co-workers think he was "weak". I won't go into the details of our conversation, but it did get me thinking.
I've been in EMS since 1985. In 1986, after I'd worked as an EMT-B for a year, I joined the Navy, and became a Corpsman. I'm a veteran of the Gulf War. I treated Coalition forces injured in the theater of operations. Tell you what, I am thankful to God for the Stress Debriefings the Navy provided for us.
Since then, I've worked in both EMS and LE. I didn't become a true believer in Critical Incident Stress Debriefing until I had a really bad call in 1999.
Long story short: Woman in polygamous community in West Valley City, Utah calls to report missing children (Ages 5 to 9 y/o, three hers, two her sister-wife's.) This is August, average temps 100-105 F. We found them two hours later in the trunk of her car. It's the worst thing in twenty years, civilian and military, I've ever handled. And God, was I angry. Pissed off want to kick *** angry. Because I was convinced...CONVINCED...that the woman who called was responsible, and LE deemed it an accident.
I blew off the first CISD. I went, under orders, to the second. And it was probably the best thing I could have done, under the circumstances. I do not think I would have survived, mentally, without it.
I guess my point is, to all those of you new to this profession, if you ever have one of those bad calls, make sure you get your butt to CISD. And if your agency doesn't have CISD, you lobby for it.
And if you need to talk, reach out. There's lots of us old horses out here willing to listen.
--- Petey
He was reluctant to attend the CISD that had been scheduled. He thought it might make his co-workers think he was "weak". I won't go into the details of our conversation, but it did get me thinking.
I've been in EMS since 1985. In 1986, after I'd worked as an EMT-B for a year, I joined the Navy, and became a Corpsman. I'm a veteran of the Gulf War. I treated Coalition forces injured in the theater of operations. Tell you what, I am thankful to God for the Stress Debriefings the Navy provided for us.
Since then, I've worked in both EMS and LE. I didn't become a true believer in Critical Incident Stress Debriefing until I had a really bad call in 1999.
Long story short: Woman in polygamous community in West Valley City, Utah calls to report missing children (Ages 5 to 9 y/o, three hers, two her sister-wife's.) This is August, average temps 100-105 F. We found them two hours later in the trunk of her car. It's the worst thing in twenty years, civilian and military, I've ever handled. And God, was I angry. Pissed off want to kick *** angry. Because I was convinced...CONVINCED...that the woman who called was responsible, and LE deemed it an accident.
I blew off the first CISD. I went, under orders, to the second. And it was probably the best thing I could have done, under the circumstances. I do not think I would have survived, mentally, without it.
I guess my point is, to all those of you new to this profession, if you ever have one of those bad calls, make sure you get your butt to CISD. And if your agency doesn't have CISD, you lobby for it.
And if you need to talk, reach out. There's lots of us old horses out here willing to listen.
--- Petey