MCRD/ERR PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. -- Naval Hospital Beaufort held a class in Critical Incident Stress Management at the Heritage Center Jan. 22 - 23.
Commander Bryce E. Lefever, head of the Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program in Norfolk, Va., instructed students on methods used by Critical Incident Response Teams, and during a Combat Stress Debriefings, in the operational theater.
Lefever then led the students through scenarios recreating real-life incidents.
"The purpose of the course is training professionals to respond with psychological first aid to service members affected by any traumatic event that has the power to disrupt lives," said Lefever. "The course, at a minimum, requires two days so that we can provide [the students] with three practice sessions where they are doing mock run-throughs of real incidents with role players."
In dealing with people who have been exposed to trauma, personnel need to be equipped with the proper methods of handling the experience.
"This technique is designed to get people past the overwhelming nature of the trauma," said Lefever. "Essentially, it inoculates them from having worse psychological problems down the line, like post traumatic stress disorder."
Lefever taught methods that aid personnel in coping with problems associated with distressing events.
"The person who takes this course will be fully trained to be able to provide a critical incident stress intervention for any number of traumatic events including combat," he said.
The students of this course will put the techniques to use locally and abroad.
"About two-thirds of those in attendance of this class will be deployed, and they need to be able to deal with troops who have undergone traumatic incidents in an operational theater," said Lefever. "It is also a good technique for combat stress debriefing, even if there is not a particularly bad outcome. It is a sort of maintenance for the troops who are exposed to the extreme stress of combat."
The course not only trains those who will be deployed but also those who will stay behind.
"We are training hospital personnel and others to form the nucleus of a [Critical Incident Response Team]," said Lefever. "So that if there is any military-related event in the region, such as a death, trauma, accidental death or some other incident, there will be a team who can respond."
Commander Gary W. Noble, head of the Behavioral Health Department, NHB, will head local the team.
"The team is still in the organizational stages of its construction," said Noble. "It will be available to the Tri-Command area, should the local commanders request the service. I have used this method in the field, and it seemed to be very effective."
The local team will be constructed using the same structure that the students became familiar with during the course.
"There are two components to one of these teams, the mental health professional role and the peer role," said Lefever. "The peer role in the military is usually taken by hospital personnel or security people."
Lefever sees these teams as tools for commanding officers to utilize when an incident occurs and encourages their use.
"We can provide a lot of assistance to their personnel," said Lefever. "The assistance we provide is not psychotherapy. We are not messing with anyone's minds. What we are doing is helping them overcome the stress of traumatic events in order to get their personnel back on their feet."
The following is a list of events for which a debriefing should be considered:
• Line of duty death.
• Suicide of a coworker or colleague.
• Tragedies where children are involved.
• Prolonged rescues. (Especially with bad outcomes)
• Bad outcome in medical procedures.
• Any tragedy with intense media exposure.
• Unexpected death of a colleague or coworker.
• Accident with serious injuries.
• Events with multiple casualties.
• Natural disasters.
• Combinations of the above.
For more information, contact Cmdr. Gary Noble at 228-5599.