Mental Health Crisis

Crider Health Center along with its partner Community Mental Health Centers in Greater St. Louis Area, is a sponsor of Behavioral Health Response.

Behavioral Health response provides 24 hour per day, seven day per week telephone crisis intervention using qualified mental health professionals. In addition Behavioral Health Response can provide mobile outreach by licensed mental health professionals to intervene on mental health emergencies anywhere in the area at any time. Behavioral Health response can be reached at,

1-800-811-4760 or www.bhrstl.org

Community Interventions Following Traumatic Events
Any event outside the usual realm of human experience that is markedly distressing can produce a wide range of reactions in individuals which may seem overwhelming. Such traumatic incidents can interfere with a person's physical, mental, emotional or behavioral functioning. These stress reactions may last a few days, a few weeks or a few months and occasionally longer depending on the severity of the event and the capacity to deal with the event successfully. In the aftermath of any traumatic critical incident, psychological reactions are quite common and are fairly predictable, they are Normal Reactions to Abnormal Events. Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) can be a valuable tool following a traumatic event.

CISM (Critical Intervention Stress Management)
Critical Incident Stress Management is a brief intervention designed for the prevention of post-traumatic stress. Critical Incident Stress Management cannot lessen or remove the emotional pain associated with a traumatic event or significant loss, but it can help speed recovery by alleviating symptoms before they cause a life disrupting problem. Although the pain cannot be eliminated, the CISM process can provide participants the opportunity to discuss their reactions to an event and deal with them in more beneficial manner. The primary goal of CISM is to lessen the overall negative impact of the event and accelerate recovery.

Timing
Normally a stress management session is scheduled within a 24 to 72 hour period following the critical incident and will last approximately two to three hours. Some may ask isn't it too soon to be trying to talk about the event? It has been shown that when people are in a state of crisis they are more open to being helped and motivated to change, therefore providing support and guidance in a time of crisis may avert prolonged mental health problems. With the guidance of a Mental Health Professional re-experiencing the emotions of a crisis will facilitate healing and prevent psychological disturbance such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Crider's Role
The Crider Center CISM Team was established to provide a form of crisis intervention specifically designed to help St. Charles, Lincoln, Warren, and Franklin county residents cope with the psychological stresses that may occur following a traumatic event. The Crider Center CISM Team provides debriefing for particularly stressful events such as multiple casualty incidents, the death of a child, the death of a co-worker, traumatic incidents involving critical media coverage, failure of rescue efforts, officer involved shootings and other events that are unusually emotionally stressful.

A Team Coordinator receives and screens requests for stress management sessions. When the need for a formal session is determined, the Team Coordinator coordinates the CISM team intervention.

The Crider Center CISM Team has been utilized in a number of occasions by local government, businesses, and schools. CISM has been provided for accidental deaths, suicides, and other traumatic events.

Disaster Recovery Counseling
Crider Health Center has assembled disaster recovery counseling programs five-times in its history. This has involved working with survivors at each of the phases of disaster recovery. This process can last over a year and as long as two years, as occurred in the Great Floods of 1993 where over 10,000 area families were re-located and many permanently lost their homes.

Crider Health Center first provides disaster relief counselors to first responder sites, then to shelters and assistance centers run by Red Cross, Salvation Army, or FEMA. Following the initial phase of the disaster, we partner with disaster recovery agencies to provide a range of supports and services to help survivors re-build their lives. Special programs are implemented for vulnerable populations, including children, youth, and elderly survivors.

Crider Health Center has agreements with Local Emergency Management Agencies and the Red Cross to provide mental health and disaster recovery counseling services in both declared and undeclared disasters.