NCJ Number
173531
Journal
Jail Suicide/Mental Health Update Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: Summer 1997 Pages: 1-4
Date Published
1997
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This paper describes critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) for jail personnel following a jail inmate's suicide.
Abstract
CISD is a group meeting or discussion about a distressing critical incident. Based on core principles of education and crisis intervention, the CISD is designed to mitigate the impact of a critical incident and to assist the personnel in recovering as quickly as possible from the stress associated with the event. The CISD is conducted by a specially trained team that includes a mental health professional and peer support personnel from the emergency services. The stress for jail personnel that results from an inmate's suicide includes guilt at not having prevented the suicide, anger and regret at not having been better prepared and trained to deal with a suicide attempt, and a continuous replaying of the events before and after the suicide in questioning what might have been done to change the outcome. In addressing these stresses, the CISD team conducts a "defusing" process before deciding whether to initiate a formal CISD session. The defusing consists of three segments: introduction, exploration, and information. The introduction consists of acquainting the personnel group with the team members and the ground rules for the defusing session. The exploration phase consists of rebuilding the incident from each participant's perspective. The information phase consists of a general discussion about stress reactions experienced by participants. A handout sheet identifies many of the "normal" stress reactions to critical incidents. Team members summarize the gathered information, attempt to answer any questions, normalize the experiences and reactions of the group, and offer practical stress survival skills to participants. To date, none of the calls the author's team has received following a jail suicide required a formal debriefing. With formal critical incident stress debriefing, the process is more detailed, and the team is expanded to include a mental health professional who has been trained to work with the team.