When an employee has an accident, gets injured, or dies, the whole organization is often affected.
Similarly, robberies, natural disasters, and other crises can impact the workplace. SAVE can be of assistance
by providing crisis management services including on-site counseling and Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM).
CISM is a process designed to help employees deal with stress. It is intended to mitigate the impact of the situation
so that employees can maintain health and productivity, speed recovery from stress with as few negative reactions as
possible, and enhance the environment in which they work. It tends to speed employees' return to work and reduces the
likelihood they will choose not to return. It is also effective in early identification of individuals who will
require professional assistance following the traumatic event. CISM was originally developed for emergency personnel
who are repeatedly faced with crises.
Critical Incident Stress Debriefing is one component of CISM. A debriefing is a group meeting in which participants
have a chance to discuss the trauma and are educated about stress management. It is not therapy.
Individual Crisis Management is another component. Individual meetings may be done in addition to or instead of a debriefing, depending upon the circumstances.
Situations in which SAVE has conducted Critical Incident Stress Management include:
- Bank robbery
- Murder of employee or family member
- Accident in the workplace
- Death of a co-worker
- Employee suicide
- Serious illness of a co-worker
- Fire
- Domestic violence incident
- Plane crash
- September 11, 2001
- The 2003 earthquake in Paso Robles
Information on crisis management should be included in disaster/safety manuals and planning so that employees
know who is responsible for scheduling debriefing, giving out handouts, etc.
SAVE provides twenty-four-hour emergency access through a paging system.