Critical Incident Stress Management (Free)

Message form the Disaster Coordinator:

We are happy to announce that we are doing another training on the CISM (Critical Incident Stress Management) crisis intervention model in collaboration with the Department of Public Health and the Red Cross.  This course is different from the Basic Model and will have an emphasis on Bioterrorism.  If you took the basic course this will provide you with a different certificate.  The training is free, but please note and remember, we, I, BHCS management requests that those who sign up for the course be available to respond to situations that may require you to be flexible with your time; I do have to say that these requests are very infrequent. For example there may be an incident/request for help that occurs in the community that falls outside of your routine work schedule; BHCS may be called upon to provide some help in these situations if and when they are screened by the Disaster Coordinator and are approved by BHCS Director Marye Thomas. If you volunteer to do some community related work after hours or during the weekend, you need to discuss the option to access comp time, or flex time with your supervisor.  If you are not afforded this option, and, or are not comfortable with this type of arrangement please wait until we have training that will not have such stipulations.

We also encourage people who receive these trainings to volunteer for other crisis/disaster relief efforts that could contribute to their knowledge base on behalf of providing experience to BHCS in case the need arises.  Please note that the calls for special interventions are sporadic, we also realize people may not always be able to respond for valid reasons. The recent situation with the Katrina relief relocation efforts here in Alameda County demonstrated that things can get busy when you least expect it, of course this is the unfortunate nature of disasters.  Our mission is to prepare and train as many staff as we can who are competent in times of need. People who volunteered in previous relief efforts will be prioritized to participate in this training as will those who have special language capabilities, (e.g. mandarin, cantonese, spanish) or other special areas of cultural competence.  Please be advised that we may not be able to accept everyone that applies for the training.  If you have any questions about the training and or are interested in being admitted to the class, please call me at, 567-8109; or e-mail me at, dchambers@acbhcs.  Thank you for taking time out to review this announcement.
 

Cordially,
Dean Chambers