Why your CISM program will never work
By Tracy Whitten
Utilizing a critical incident stress management (CISM) program in our current fire service is equivalent to believing your favorite fairy-tale hero was actually real.
Departments across the nation are coming to terms with the importance of behavioral health programs. Although peer support programs are becoming more prominent than CISM programs, both encompass behavioral health and carry virtually the same goals. Their main objectives systematically restore crew cohesiveness, normalize the emotional reactions from traumatic events, and direct individuals toward additional help if needed. Even retirees are stepping forward and, with no shortage of courage, pleading with current service people to “open up” and “talk about your experiences.” They’ve dealt with the ideology consequences of “Man up,” “This doesn’t affect me,” and “Nothing I see would surprise me anymore” and now understand how that can negatively impact their emotional, mental, and physical attributes. Those who study behavioral health know that a vast majority of stress-related symptoms and accompanied poor life choices are navigated by using a behavioral health program!
It’s quite simple. Psychologist know that how we process information and the emotions we attach to them come from childhood and lifelong experiences. When we express or verbalize our thoughts and emotions, our cortisol (stress hormone) levels decline. When expressed appropriately, this process can lead people to the emotional healing they probably weren’t even aware they needed. If our thoughts lead to our emotions, and our emotions lead to our behaviors, implanting even a simple behavioral health program has potential benefits. At its core, the CISM model is simply expressing the emotion and knowing you’re completely normal for having it.
Facing Reality
The fire service is doing an amazing job at bringing forth the information on the need for continued CISM implementation. With time, we’ll see this model of emotional health care be as routine as safety belts and personal protective equipment gloves. But if we want to see change that doesn’t take a firefighter’s career to obtain, we’re going to have to address our biggest fairy-tale story: that we’re a bunch of heroes.
It’s painful to write as much as to read, but we often hide behind the novelty of selfless heroism for our community at the very real expense of our brother/sisterhood and, even worse, ourselves. It undoubtedly takes bravery to do what we’re called on to do. When tones drop, we quickly don our hero capes and charge headlong into situations within our communities that can range from us being merely inconvenienced to finding ourselves unprepared. We risk our own sense of certainty for the sake of helping our community. And yet, one only needs to maintain minimal competency for the status quo heroism. Even burned out department members, or the highly negative “done-with-serving-the-community” members, are still wearing the same cape (i.e., uniform) as the motivated member next to him.
On the other hand, REAL heroism (where we’re faced with uncertain danger but charge ahead for the greater good) is when we reach across the divide of backgrounds, assumptions, and beliefs to build a common ground of understanding within our troops. Unfortunately, our quick judgments, impulse assumptions, and attitudes when left unchecked can wreak havoc on crew cohesion.
We probably all have real-life examples of how FEAR, SHAME, and BLAME can steer the ship of a department in an unfavorable way. May we not be fooled, because where these feelings reside and can fester, emotional health WILL NOT exist. If we take the argument that, as human beings, we have an innate desire to be in genuine relationships with others, then diving into an understanding of how relationships are formed, and often broken, would become paramount for an organization to be successful.
One understanding of healthy relationships is the notion that individuals form a trusting “bond” between both parties, so long as harm is not done to the other. We form these bonds every time we interact with others. Some bonds are momentary, others lifelong. The basis of the bond is mutual trust. Within the trust is varying degrees of the understanding that that each person is respected, valued, and given room to be himself. So, our bonds form at different levels with different lengths of time accordingly.
Fear, Shame, and Blame
The problem with fear, shame, and blame is they erode the level of trust we must possess to show our true selves. If I bring an idea to the table and you shame me for it, I will no longer trust you to hear my ideas! Shame usage will always lead to disengagement in our departments. Fear comes into play when we want to bring forth an idea but our level of trust isn’t formed deeply enough. This leads us to feel unsure of the safety of expressing ourselves. No one wants to be laughed at or made to feel dumb, and we’ll always self-protect to avoid those outcomes. Blame gets used as an emotional defense when our trust bonds get broken and we seek a temporary fix by offsetting our hurt onto others.
We see fear, shame, and blame used from the administration down to department tailboards, with no position immune from its reach. It’s the breeding ground of stagnant growth, disengagement, loss of morale, and disgruntled troops. If a department’s culture allows for fear, shame, and blame to be used, expect an uphill battle with building trust. It goes without saying that CISM, which at its core requires trust, can never coexist within this culture.
Yes, we need to continue to educate our members about behavioral health. Yes, we need departments to implement a CISM, peer support, or other forms of behavioral health programs, but even more so, we MUST require self-evaluation on how our leadership, or lack of leadership, is snuffing out this growth. Because if we’re indifferent to fear, shame, and blame as commonplace, we’ll continue to see our brothers and sisters who would rather die than reach out for help.
Tracy Whitten is a firefighter/paramedic with the Denton (TX) Fire Department. She is the founder and current president of North Texas Women Firefighters, a nonprofit that recruits, educates, and equips women to be successful in the fire service. As a subscriber to the phrase “The more you read the less you know,” Whitten’s quest to understand human behavior and effective leadership practices has led her to an eclectic topic of studies. As a lover of psychology, she’s passionate about the link between mental health and organizational leadership.
