ABS Critical incident stress management (CISM)

Critical incident stress management (CISM), is a special therapeutic program that materializes in the form of short-term-focused interventions, directed particularly at traumatized or emotionally affected employees after a distressing critical incident.

Any workplace can encounter a traumatizing event that affects the work environment and in some extreme cases derail the entire enterprise.

ABS, CISM is designed to mitigate the impact of critical incidents and assist affected employees by using critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) psychotherapeutic techniques to help in preventing the possible long-term effects of acute trauma.

ABS, CISM services can be implemented at a workplace in three distinct forms;

1. Pre-incident preparedness.
2. Acute crisis management.
3. Post-crisis follow-up.

Pre-incident preparedness services often include preparation for future incidents in the workplace, that can result in destabilizing the work environment, that will affect the employees’ emotional condition and organizational productivity, these major transformations include events like:

• Expected mass layoffs.
• Organization emotional preparation during corporate acquisition, merging, and or takeovers.
• Corporate adjustments during the organization’s physical relocation.
• Social and political environments affecting employees.
• Generation personality change preparedness.

Acute crisis management– upon demand the deployment of a member of the ABS (CISM) team to set up and facilitate on-site critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) intervention. A member of the ABS (CISM team can be deployed upon demand for all emergent situations needing mental health crisis professionals. Most common incidents include, but are not limited to:

• Bank and/or other business robberies.
• The suicide of a colleague.
• The injury or death of a coworker.
• On-site crimes like assault, robbery, or other acts of violence.
• Shootings and mass shootings.
• Mass casualty incident.
• Accidental death in the workplace.
• Natural disaster.
• Viral outbreaks affecting the workplace.

Post-crisis follow-up services include open-door EAP services for employees and managers consultation to assess employee post-traumatic stress symptoms and offer referral services for post-trauma treatment. Following extreme events that can come in various forms, like:

• The Unexpected co-worker’s death.
• The suicide of a colleague.
• The injury or death of a child.
• On-site crimes like assault, robbery, or other acts of violence.
• Shootings and mass shootings.
• Mass casualty incident.
• Coworker betrayal.
• Terrorism.
• War.
• Natural disaster.
• Viral outbreaks affecting the workplace.

The Benefits of ABS CISM services

• Reduce employee absenteeism
• Improve employee retention
• Improve employee safety
• Improve and maintain good coworker relationships
• Improve organizational productivity
• Prevent personal problems from affecting the workplace environment
• Prevent workman’s compensation claims
• Prevent unwanted employee lawsuits by troubled employees