Local officials met in December to learn how to help healthcare workers and first responders face stressful situations.
Submitted photo
GREENFIELD — The emotional health of Hancock County’s first responders and healthcare workers was addressed in a recent training event.
Critical Incident Stress Management training happened at the New Palestine Wellness Center in December. The session created a team of facilitators to help local officials.
According to a press release from Healthy365, a department of Hancock Regional Hospital, CISM is a proven tool that can be used by trained facilitators to help minimize the potentially harmful stress-related symptoms associated with critical incidents.
After a stressful event takes place, first responders can talk with a CISM facilitator to help promote a healthy response and accelerate the healing process.
Hosted in partnership with Hancock Regional Hospital and Healthy365, the training took place over three days as a structured, supportive discussion to teach participants how to help others process trauma.
“We can be there to support anybody from a doctor and hospital, to a fire/EMS team, to law enforcement who might need some time to think through what they’ve been through and emotionally deal with that,” said Kim Kile, director of counseling at Greenfield-Central High School.
There has been a small CISM team of seven people operating with the Hancock Health system with great success thus far.
“Hancock Health has had a Critical Incident Stress Management team active for about the last year,” said Amanda Everidge MSW, LSW, Director of Community Health Improvement and CISM Coordinator. “We have seen that it has really helped individuals process what they encounter, to understand their emotional reactions and move forward in a healthy way.”
The goal of this training was to expand the team to 29 local representatives from healthcare, emergency services, mental health providers, and other community partners as a county-wide effort to be prepared for treating mental wellness following any critical incident in Hancock County.
Those with questions or in need of support from the CISM team may contact [email protected], [email protected] or 317-468-4231.
For more information, visit the Healthy365 Connection Center in Greenfield or visit behealthy365.org.
