Conflict & Crisis Communication: Methods of Crisis Intervention and Stress Management (Behavioral SCIENCES‪)‬

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Barricaded hostage and crisis situations, kidnappings, transportation and natural disasters, and terrorist events comprise some of the most difficult critical incidents that communities must be ready to respond to, manage, and resolve. Like all critical incidents, these situations can bring on feelings of fear, hopelessness, and helplessness. Individual responses to these events fall along a broad continuum, from being paralyzed with trauma to being dismissive of the entire event. The reaction of an individual to a critical incident can never be predicted with 100% accuracy, but must rather be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. This is because an intervener can never know for sure the entire background and experiences of an individual and the baggage that he or she brings to the table. For those who experience psychological trauma associated with critical incidents, individual crisis intervention and Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) are methods that can be used to restore a person's ability to cope and prevent long-term psychological ailments such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This article will discuss individual crisis intervention with emphasis on bereavement and grief and CISM with emphasis on Critical Incident Stress Debriefings (CISD) as they relate to line-of-duty deaths, children, and the debriefers themselves.