on the subject of peer support team training - l did a literature review
on the effectiveness of Critical Incident Stress Management / Debriefing
last year and the outcome was there is very limited agreement on any
terms / concepts in the field of CISM - so if the group is having
difficulty coming to a shared definition then it is not alone.
Some of the problems are: (and the other psychs in this group can have a
field day disputing this) Debriefings / peer support was developed with
a specific target audience in mind, that is emergency service personnel.
The process formalised and built on already existing support structures
within the group (imagine a bunch of blokes standing around the bar with
a beer having a yarn about the accident, fire, etc); what is more
however it "normalised" trauma reactions. CISDebriefing was not
developed to reduce PTSD; it is not preventative as much as
facilitative, eg: reduce trauma symptoms, speed a return to a
comfortable level of functioning.
A debriefing is only one part of a total management package (hence
CISmanagement) - of pretraining, intervention, followup.
The research outcomes are confusing because different populations are
often compared, eg: emergency service groups with random groups of
strangers who happened to have experienced the same trauma but were not
part of a functioning group. Different measures have been used to
"measure" outcome. Outcome is often defined as PTSD related.
There is lack of clear definition of the essential factors of a
debriefing.
So what has this to do with aviaion / CRM? It does seem clear (at least
from my reading) that social support and the maintenance of continuity
of care are essential elements in CISM. I would suggest that both these
factors may coexist comfortably with CRM if we consider crew to be the
wider aviation community within a specific airline and not just
immediate aircraft crew.
I am rambling l think so l will end it here
Jo-Anne Hamilton
Ashleigh Merritt wrote:
>
> Greg Deen wrote:
> Could someone please explain what this personality disorder discussion has to
> do with improving the teamwork associated with flying airplanes...
>
> Greg,
> I see you are as belligerant towards researchers as ever ;)
> It is always the same question for you (and it is a good question) "what is
> the practical application? Can we use it?"
>
> I asked the question because I wanted to know where research was at on the
> topic. I thought it had application for stress management and team
> monitoring, and perhaps they had some pointers for us on how to handle
> acute stress both during and after the event.
>
> I also thought the term 'personality disorder' had some pretty nasty lay
> connotations (as you seem to have picked up on) and I wanted the author of
> the comment to clarify it for us before we go off on another round of
> psych-bashing
>
> Ash
> Ashleigh Merritt
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