7 Available Classes (ICISF Approved)

ASSISTING INDIVIDUALS IN CRISIS
The most common crisis interventions take place individually (one-on-one) or in groups. This course teaches participants the fundamentals and protocols for individual interventions.  
    The audience for this class includes both emergency services, military, and business/industrial peer support personnel without formal training in mental health, as well as mental health professionals, who desire to increase their knowledge of individual (one-on-one) crisis intervention techniques.  
    Peer-support serves as one of the most important tools in early crisis intervention.  When survivors hear a trained peer, someone who lives and works in a world similar to their own, relate how she/he rebuilt a life after a critical incident, they are empowered and encouraged toward recovery.  People who once felt isolated and alone come to believe that they can rediscover the new normal of meaningful life.

CRISIS INTERVENTION FOR GROUPS
The CISM: Group Crisis Intervention training program presents the core elements of a comprehensive, systematic and multi-component crisis intervention curriculum. The two day course prepares participants to understand a wide range of crisis intervention services including pre and post incident crisis education, significant other support services, on-scene support services, crisis intervention for individuals, demobilizations after large scale traumatic incidents, small group defusing and the group intervention known as Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD). CISM: Group Crisis Intervention specifically prepares participants to provide several of these interventions, specifically demobilizations, defusings, and the CISD. The need for appropriate follow up services and referrals when necessary is also described. Considerable evidence gathered to date strongly supports the multi-component crisis intervention strategy, which is discussed in this course. CISM:Group Crisis Intervention course teaches crisis intervention and Emer-gency Mental Health skills such as demobilizations, defusing, and CISD. At the completion of this course, participants will be able to : Define stress, CIS, and PTSD; List the 10 basic interventions of CISM; and Define and describe in detail the CISM group processes of Demobilizations, Defusings, and Debriefings. Participants experience improved strength in their own personal coping skills and an increased awareness of the importance of self-care.

ADVANCED GROUP CRISIS INTERVENTION
 Designed to provide participants with the latest information on critical incident stress management techniques and post-trauma syndromes, the Advanced Group Crisis Intervention builds on the knowledge base which was obtained through the Group Crisis Intervention program and/or in publications. At the conclusion of this course, participants will have been exposed to specific, proven strategies to intervene with those suffering the ill effects of their exposure to trauma. Emphasis will be on advanced defusings and debriefings in complex situations.
    This course is designed for EAP, human resources and public safety personnel, mental health professionals, chaplains, emergency medical services providers, firefighters, physicians, police officers, nurses, dispatchers, airline personnel and disaster workers who are already trained in the critical incident stress debriefing format. It will also be useful for those working extensively with traumatized victims for various walks of life.
    This course requires previous training and experience. ICISF’s “Group Crisis Intervention” should be viewed as a prerequisite.

EMOTIONAL & SPIRITUAL CARE IN DISASTERS
This advanced level course will enhance your skills to provide effective emotional and spiritual care (ESC) to meet the disaster-related needs of disaster responders and disaster affected families and individuals within disaster operations. This course builds on the crisis intervention principles taught in the Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) core courses to effectively integrate these principles within ESC teams for appropriate care throughout the disaster continuum from the immediate to long-term recovery process.
    This course is designed for trained clergy, chaplains, mental health professionals, and CISM trained crisis responders who desire to enhance their skills in providing Emotional and Spiritual Care to survivors of disaster and trauma.

PASTORAL CRISIS INTERVENTION
Pastoral Crisis Intervention may be thought of as the combination of faith-based resources with traditional techniques of crisis intervention. PCI represents a powerful addition to traditional community and organizational psychological support resources. The purpose of this two-day course is to assist the participants in learning how pastoral interventions and traditional psychological crisis interventions may be effectively integrated.
    The second-level course builds on the foundations of ICISF’s “Pastoral Crisis Intervention” class. More specific advanced concepts and specific field applications where pastoral crisis intervention is applied will be covered.

STRATEGIC RESPONSE TO CRISIS
Knowing what sequence and modes of crisis intervention processes to use proves crucial to all effective early intervention programs.  Practice using questions about type, target, theme, time, and team to enhance effectiveness.  The course presents essential information for the assessment of both crisis situations and the effects of critical incidents on those involved. Learn to create an effective plan of action to assist those in crisis and complete a series of exercises designed to sharpen assessment and crisis planning skills. Strategic planning and tactical decision making are emphasized, as are rationales for choosing one set of crisis intervention processes over another.

This course builds confidence that crisis interventionists will make the right choices of interventions for the populations they are assisting under specific circumstances.

This course requires previous training and experience. ICISF’s “Group Crisis Intervention” and “Individual Crisis Intervention and Peer Support” are highly recommended as prerequisites.

STRESS MANAGEMENT FOR THE TRAUMA SERVICE PROVIDER
(Emergency Personnel and Crisis Interventionists)
This important course enlightens and empowers those who work with traumatized people.  Explore the “Stress Continuum,” the levels of stress including eustress (i.e., beneficial, motivating stress), traumatic stress, burnout, counter-transference, compassion fatigue or secondary PTSD, and vicarious traumatization which may occur as a result of helping others. A discussion of coping strategies for those who work with traumatized children will also be offered. Individual self-report exercises and an experiential group support session will assist the participating trauma provider in assessing their own level of stress through sharing personal experiences with others. Stress management self-care techniques will be presented, experienced, and discussed.  
    Unlike other classes, the schedule for this class remains flexible so that it can be adapted to 4 in-service training sessions (4 hrs each) over a reasonable period.