CRITICAL INCIDENT STRESS
MANAGEMENT SERVICES

Our Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Team provides 24/7 response to corporations and organizations that have experienced a traumatic event.  The Team, primarily based in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Austin, Texas, can be dispatched immediately to your location, locally, nationally or internationally.  Specialized Team members are prepared to provide services in global hot zones. Our Team can provide services in both English and Spanish.

All Team members have been trained in the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF) model, and have extensive experience providing "emotional first aid" to workgroups that have been impacted by deaths, injuries, violence and threats of violence (which include events ranging from the threatening behavior of an individual employee, to robberies, hostage situations, industrial sabotage, etc.) Our Team also has been dispatched at times of major organizational change, such as during company closings, layoffs, mergers and restructurings.

Photo by Dez Pain

Critical Incidents can produce an unusually intense stress reaction and impact the individual's ability to function in his/her normal work and home environments.  Impaired sleep and concentration can compromise the individual's safety. Many of the symptoms experienced after a traumatic event can be frightening, thereby adding an additional layer of distress during an already difficult period.

Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) is an integrated approach to crisis intervention, which speeds recovery, enhances safety and can prevent or limit the development of post-traumatic stress. 

Immediately following a critical incident, we generally recommend the following:

• Identify those individuals who were directly exposed to the trauma.  Insure their safety, by limiting their access to safety sensitive work zones until their needs can be assessed.  Provide safe transportation as necessary.
• Identify other individuals, who were not at the scene, but who may have been greatly impacted by the critical incident, in order to assess their immediate needs.
• Assign buddies, if possible, to those who are experiencing significant emotional turmoil and who should not be left alone.
• Make a general workplace announcement with basic facts about the traumatic incident, to begin managing employees concerns and to control rumors.
• Contact a qualified critical incident stress management team and make arrangements for their arrival on-site.                                                                 

Pre-Incident Planning, Prevention and Training Services

In affiliation with Richard Ottenstein, Ph.D., CEO of the Workplace Trauma Center, we have developed a series of services to assist business and industry to reduce both the incidence and the impact of traumatic incidents that occur in the workplace. 

Pre-Incident Consultation Services provide organizations with critical information about the human risk factors to be considered within overall organizational safety planning.  After conducting industry specific and workforce specific analysis, we provide operational and training recommendations, geared to eliminating or minimizing the risk of physical and emotional injury to employees, in the event of emergency or disaster.

Industry Specific Pre-Incident Training Seminars prepare employees to negotiate high risk events that they may encounter in the course of their employment.

Dr. Ottenstein's Armed Robbery Survival Skills Training provides bank employees, as well as workers in other high risk industries, with the emotional and behavioral preparedness necessary to negotiate robbery as safely as possible.  As this training incorporates a review of institutional policy and procedures for robbery, it can be utilized as an enhanced version of an organization's new hire and annual safety training.

Ms. Cohen and Dr. Ottenstein, have also developed an Industrial Safety and Wellness Training, to reduce employee risk of accident and injury in manufacturing and processing plants, as well as to prepare workers to respond to emergencies effectively and with the least traumatization possible.  Industry specific trainings can be developed to accommodate the needs of any requesting industry.

For trauma/critical incident response,

please dial 281-433-1660 now.

For non-emergency inquiries about our CISM services, please e-mail us at:

info@path2solutions.com.