Mayor Sharon Weston Broome announced this morning the creation of a team that will support emergency medical responders who are dealing with stress and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Broome says the Critical Incident Stress Management team will “assist medics in coping with day-to-day work stresses and other mental health burdens that can arise from the workload, call volume, and the nature of certain emergency response situations.”
The CISM team aims to help employees lead healthier lives by providing pre-incident training, on-site support, psychological first aid, peer-to-peer support, and continued care to respondents who experience unmanaged chronic stress. In the case of a critical incident, a “Code Green” will activate the CISM team to go to the site and assist as needed.
“The CISM team serves those who serve others, and firmly embodies their motto that “No one fights alone,” says EMS Director Chad Guillot in a prepared statement.
