Here is my additional CERT training concentrated upon the psychological environment created by a traumatic event.  This comes from the book.

Critical incident stress debriefing (CISD):

• – A critical incident stress debriefing is one type of intervention that may be helpful for CERT. Critical incident stress management, (CISAM) is a short term healing process that focuses on helping people deal with the trauma one incident at a time. CISM Is intended to lessen the chance of experiencing post – trauma stress disorder.
• – CERT leaders made by a mental health professional trained in critical incident stress management to conduct a critical incidents stress debriefing.
• – C ISD is a formal group process held between 1 to 3 days after the event. It’s geared to help emergency service personnel and volunteers to cope with the traumatic event.
• – C ISD would not be used as a stand-alone intervention but we’ve used in connection with other types of intervention such as diffusing, debriefing, and following up with individual.
• – Petition in a CI SD should be voluntary. Your agency may assist in arranging for these services for the CERT. If no one is available to your agency contact the Red Cross or a community mental health agency. Pastoral counseling is not a substitute for disaster counseling from a professional.
• – C ISD has seven phases.
• – Introductions and the description of the process, including assurance of confidentiality.
• – Review of the factual material about the incident.
• – Sharing of initial thoughts and feelings about the incident
• – Sharing of emotional reactions to the incident
• – Review of the symptoms of stress experienced by the participants.
• – Instruction about normal stress reactions.
• – Closing and further needs assessment.

Working with survivor’s trauma:

• – Crisis survivors can go through a variety of emotional phases, and as a rescuer, you should be aware of what you may encounter
• – Impact phase, survivors generally do not panic and may, in fact show no emotion.
• – Inventory phase, survivors assess damage and try to locate other survivors. Routine social ties tend to be discarded in favor of more functional relationships required for initial response activities (search and rescue)
• – Rescue phase, emergencies service personnel respond, survivors of willing to take direction from these groups without protest. This is why CERT identification felt was best etc. is important. Survivors are likely to be more helpful and compliant during the rescue phase.
• – Recovery phase, the survivors appear to pull together against their rescuers as they transition to the recovery phase. You should expect survivors to show psychological effects from the disaster, expects a reaction to be directed toward you.
• – Traumatic crisis will the crisis is an event that is experienced or witnessed and a person’s ability to cope is overwhelmed

Traumatic Crisis:

• – Actual or potential death or injury to self and others
• – Serious injury destruction of their homes, neighborhood, and possessions
• – Loss of contact with family members or close friends

Traumatic stress may affect:

• – Cognitive functioning: people he acted irrationally to ways that are out a character. They may have difficulty sharing or retrieving memories.
• – Physical help: stress can cause a range of physical symptoms from exhaustion health problems.
• – Interpersonal relationships: those who survive to make stress undergo temporary or long-term personality changes that may affect interpersonal relationships

Meditating factors:

• – The strength and type of personal reaction to trauma may vary depending on: CERT members can’t know and should never seem to know someone else think of feeling. Do not take the survivors attitude personally. Rescuers can expect to see a range of responses that will vary from person to person. Their responses may relate to the event not to CERT members.
• – Persons prior experience, with the same or similar event; the emotional effect of multiple events can build up lead to greater stress reactions. Intensity of the disruption is the writer’s lives; the borders of either lives are disrupted, the greater the psychological and physical reactions.
• – The meaning of the event to the individual; the more catastrophic the victim deceives the event to Hillary personally one tends his or her stress maybe
• – Emotional well-being of individual and the resources (especially social) that he or she has to hope; people who have other recent traumas may not hold with additional stresses.
• – The length of time that has elapsed between the events occurrence in the present. The reality of event takes time to sink in.

Have any additional suggestions? Please share them in the comment section of this blog.