Critical Incident Stress Integration & Support

What is CRISIS?

Critical Incident Stress Integration & Support (CRISIS) is a psychosocial system for helping people when they have experienced a critical incident, providing an immediate and effective response to stress and trauma.

The psychosocial nature of the CRISIS system means that ordinary people can be trained as Facilitators, in order to help other people in their organisations or social groups, providing immediate and effective help.

In short, CRISIS Facilitators provide a supportive and humane response to the emotional and psychological needs of a fellow human beings when something bad has happened to them.

Who delivers CRISIS?

CRISIS facilitators don’t have to be clinically trained therapists or counsellors.

Rather, they may be caring professionals, peers or volunteers who can demonstrate trustworthiness, discretion and non-judgmental values, and are suitably placed to support colleagues, clients and dependents in difficult times.

When can CRISIS be used?

CRISIS can be used by trained Facilitators upon first contact with someone in distress. Uniquely, it can be facilitated both during and following a critical incident, and also to provide ongoing support.

Facilitators are able to spot the signs of traumatic reactions, and have the skills with which to provide effective support right there on the spot.

What is a ‘critical’ incident?

Essentially, any event, incident, situation, or occurrence that has the potential to overwhelm a person’s natural coping abilities can be considered a ‘critical’ incident.

This definition allows us to consider life events or situations that are not usually associated with trauma. The following list illustrates typical incident types commonly associated with trauma:

Combat
Road traffic collision
Terror attack
Disaster
Sudden bereavement
Violence
Sex crime
Childhood emotional/physical/sexual abuse
Close calls

Incident types less commonly associated with trauma, but widely accepted to be destructive and distressing include, but aren’t limited to:

Financial loss
Relationship closure
Breach of trust
Bullying
Childbirth
Job loss
Serious illness
A medical procedure

This is not an exhaustive list – it must reconsider that what is ‘critical’ is unique and subjective to the individual experiencing it.

Is CRISIS a form of therapy?

No, it’s a form of psychosocial support and therefore considered to be non-clinical.

The system is simply an evidence-informed system for practitioners to facilitate supportive and empowering conversations, enhancing natural recovery processes

CRISIS isn’t;

Counselling
Psychotherapy
Treatment
Labelling
Diagnostic
Debriefing.

A key difference between CRISIS and therapy, is that facilitator’s do not attempt (in any way) to interpret what is happening for the person they are supporting – there is no diagnostic approach, and facilitator’s do not apply any form of treatment.

In what sectors is CRISIS useful?

CRISIS is useful wherever there are people, although the following sectors are areas in which it may be particularly useful;

Voluntary agencies
Business
Social services
Emergency services
Post terror/disaster recovery
Social groups
Clinical services
Local authorities
Criminal justice
Travel industry
Manufacture
Construction
Retail

What are the strengths of CRISIS?

CRISIS has many strengths, here are a few to consider;

Facilitates an immediate response for people in distress
Applicable in diverse settings
Culturally responsive peer support model
Non-diagnostic and non-judgmental, and therefore helps reduce stigma
Evidence-informed and developed from real-world crisis situations
Theory driven, providing a solid and credible system of supporting people
Founded in Aristotelian philosophy, giving the system an extraordinary academic lineage
Functional and memorable model, easily applied following a critical incident

How long does it take to train a facilitator?

Facilitators are initially trained over the course of a 2 Day interactive CRISIS Schema® Workshop, online or in the classroom.

Key areas of development within this workshop are;

Understanding critical incident stress and trauma
Application of the CRISIS Schema®
Communicating with individuals in distress
Understanding and evaluating peritraumatic reactions
Interventions for individuals in distress
Stabilising individuals in distress
Providing information to support recovery
Providing ongoing support for individuals and options for self-support
Ethics and safeguarding.

Further Facilitator development is possible by undertaking the Group CRISIS Schema® workshop. This enables facilitator’s to provide effective support for groups of people, and builds upon the foundational skills of the CRISIS Schema®.

For those who wish to develop further and manage teams of facilitator’s, qualification is acquired through the CRISIS Coordinator® workshop.