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Permalink Reply by Brent Sanger on May 15, 2008 at 9:57pm

There are many jobs out there for that. CISM, or Critical Incident Stress Management, is the program that firefighters, police officers, and EMS workerrs use to debrief after bad calls, or when all the little calls finally add up. I will give you a website to a lot of them for more information if you drop me a line. MY e-mail is artic_gypsy@yahoo.com

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Permalink Reply by Mike Gibson on May 21, 2008 at 7:30am

Hi Anna,
I just left a reply for you on The Volunteers re: this question. Please feel free to contact me if I can be of help.

Take Care,
Mike

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Permalink Reply by Chaplain Robert A Crutchfield on May 21, 2008 at 12:31pm

The Houston Police Department just started a six month pilot program where mental health professionals ride with police officers to calls where a known mental health issue may come in to play. So at least some of the bigger departments are looking in that direction. Its worth noting that the mental health professional come from the local MHMRA (mental health mental retardation authority.) So in looking for such opportunities you may have to look past the public safety agencies themselves.

More and more chaplains, myself included are being trained in crisis counseling. A certain amount of crisis counseling is increasingly being folded into our role. My advise would be to check into organizations such as the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress (www.aaets.org) or the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (www.icisf.org.) Most consider them the top two groups in the field.

If I can be of any further help, just let me know,
Chaplain Crutchfield

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Permalink Reply by David Lowell on June 22, 2008 at 9:07pm

I am a retired firefighter with 33 years service. over half as an Asst Chief. In 1999 I took training from NOVA that is National Orginization for Victim Assistance. It opened doors for me thay I could not immagine. I was a companion to families affected by the World Trade Center Attack at the New Jersey Family Assistance Center. I worked in Florida after Hurricane Francis at a Brevard FEMA Assistance Center. After Hurricane Katrine I was at Stennis, Mississippi. Our job was to debrief the FEMA Firefighters there. We only were able to work two days because of Hurricane Rita. After that we worked all along the MS gulf coast. Most of this was with civilians. Contact NOVA at www.trynova.org and check us out. We work with CISM. There is a difference but most of it is language used. By the way we are not Conselors we are Debriefers. Connselors get payed and have degrees in mostly unrelated fields.

Crisis Debriefing is a separate field from Counseling. Crisis counceling is special field. As a debriefer we let the people individually or in a group tell their story. Those who have trouble we refer to professionals.
Most just need to talk

David Lowell
Retired Asst. Fire Chief
Hillsboro, Ohio Fire and Rescue
Nationally Certified Crisis Responder.

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Permalink Reply by michael wilson on June 24, 2008 at 12:50pm

hello, i am an chaplain for a fire dept. in southern arkansas. i am a licensed minister and also have been trained by NOVA in crisis debriefing. it is a wonderful program. critical incident stress debriefing(CISD) is needed in every dept. at one time or another. it has helped us a lot.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff "Fire Hawg" on August 22, 2008 at 5:13pm

Try Arlington County Va. EAP (Employee Assistance Program) I don't have the number of hand, but I'm sure it's online somewhere. If I find it I'll let you know.

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Permalink Reply by Walter "Tommy" Little on August 23, 2008 at 4:02pm

You can check with your local Red Cross office because I know they use Crisis/Grief Counselors. You might also want to check wih some of the local police and/or fire departments to see if they can utilize your services.

Walter

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Permalink Reply by Glen GArland on August 24, 2008 at 9:21pm

Anna, there absolutly is a need throughout the emergency services for crisis counselors. The trick is finding a dept. or agency that can employ you in that area. Need to be near a larger city I would suspect. I know in my neck of the woods the CISD teams are volunteer. There are counselors in private practice that do specialize in crisis work. Best of luck in your search.

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