Critical Incident Stress Programme.

Entrant : Safer Communities Awards 2000

In the late 1980s the VICSES became aware of pioneering work undertaken in the USA by Dr Geoffrey Mitchell, who identified critical incident stress as a perticular type of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by emergency service workers. Dr Mitchell recognised that prior briefings of those potentially exposed could mitigate these effects. VICSES subsequently embarked upon a program that enables volunteer emergency workers to talk to other volunteers who have been trained in the basic elements of de-briefing and de-fusing techniques. Since the program's inception, VICSES has had no claims for workers compensation as a result of any volunteer or staff member suffering post-traumatic stress disorder following a critical incident.