Debriefing the debriefers: An intervention strategy to assist psychologists after a crisis

Abstract

This article looks at the stresses inherent in crisis intervention work in general, and on the effects on psychologkts in particular. The authors review debriefing strategies currently used and argue that the needs of psychologists differ from those of other crisis interveners such as police or ambulance workers. They present a debriefing strategy that takes into account the psychologist 3 need for psychological understanding and integration. KEY WORDS debriefing; crisis; victims: crisis intervention.45 0694-9867,9&Q1000W5SMSOlO 0 1992 Plenum Publishing Corporation

Disaster-related post-traumatic stress in police officers: a field study of the impact of debriefing

“…A police force psychologist (RvdH) supervised the entire debrie®ng period. In the interest of the team he held regular`debrie®ngs for the debriefers' 21 , and these served simultaneously to check whether the debriefing was proceeding according to the agreed guidelines. As an additional check on this, we asked the participants in our study to inform us of the exact content of the debrie®ng they had received.…”

The process in psychological debriefings

“…The excep-tions are Shalev (1994) and Westerink (1996) who explore some of the process variables discussed herein. The most thorough discussion of processes to date actually concerns debriefing the debriefers (Talbot, Manton, & Dunn, 1992). It is important to reflect on and consider some group processes involved in this line of work, both to formulate hypotheses that can be empirically tested, and to stimulate discussion and reflection on factors that can hamper or help in conducting the debriefings.…”

“…While psychosocial support staff often work more individually and have to listen to horrific trauma stories, fire fighters and other emergency workers work in smaller tightly knit work teams. Discussion of emotional issues may be targeted more during debriefing of the psychosocial workers, as they not only are concerned with what happened but more with understanding the processes behind (Talbot et al, 1992). Collaboration, team efforts and success, and mutual group support may be more important in debriefing emergency workers.…”

EAPs and Critical Incident Stress Debriefing

“…Finally, post-debriefing meetings, commonly called ''debriefing the debriefers'' are held (Talbot et al, 1991). Debriefers benefit by revisiting their responses in the meeting and learning from feedback and suggestions.…”