Montgomery County Critical Incident Stress Management Team |
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Providing Critical Incident Stress Management and Group Crisis services to the Emergency Services of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Our MissionThe Critical Incident Stress Management discipline deals with Acute Traumatic Stress through the basic concepts of education, support and promoting self-care. This includes management of the psychological consequences of terrorism, disasters and other mass events. Organization ProfileThe Montgomery County Critical Incident Stress Management (Montco CISM) Team has been in operation 24/7/365 since 1986. It is comprised of volunteers with special skills, training, and interests that stand ready to help the citizens of Montgomery County when bad things happen. Originally started to assist the many emergency services and workers in the county, it expanded in 2003 to assist groups of everyday citizens of our communities. We deal with normal people who, through some trauma in their professional or personal lives, have disturbing stress reactions. In 2009, the citizen component was transferred to the Montgomery County Behavioral Health/Developmental Disabilities Department. Since that time we have again focused on the emergency services. The team has been activated for major events including 3 air crashes, floods, tornadoes, and the World Trade Center tragedy. We have responded to support stress related to shootings, explosions, and major fires. Activities have also included line of duty injury and death and victims of other violent crimes. We are members of the Pennsylvania CISM Network and the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. The team is sponsored by the Montgomery County Department of Public Safety (Division of EMS). Please read further in the linked pages for more information about CISM, the Montco CISM team and its very special volunteers. Contact InformationThe Montco CISM team has a volunteer On-call Coordinator available 24 hours a day. The leadership of a group or organization would be the best person to make the call. The On-call Coordinator will then confer via phone to determine the best way that our team can assist. As appropriate, team resources will be mobilized to assist the groups in crisis. With the exception of emergency workers, we do not deal with individuals of the general public in crisis. However, we can assist with referral to the appropriate agencies.
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