There is always a possibility of an event or incident initiating trauma for some or all of the response team.  A Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) is a specific, small group, supportive crisis intervention process. The CISD process does not constitute any form of psychotherapy and should not be used as a replacement for psychotherapy. It is simply a supportive, crisis-focused discussion of a traumatic event (which is frequently called a “critical incident”). While CISD was originally developed to support small, homogenous groups, it has broader applications to interdisciplinary response overdose response teams who have encountered a powerful, traumatic event. It aims at reduction of distress and a restoration of group cohesion and unit performance.

When possible, utilize professionals external to the organizations involved to facilitate all debriefing sessions to avoid staff feeling that they are being asked to attend an information gathering session. Also, it is important to promote honesty without staff fear of retaliation to gather recommendations. Ideally, these meetings would be held in person as it creates more safety and a sense of comradery. Group size should be no more than fifteen and there should be at least an hour of allotted time for each group. For those working at home, or who would feel uncomfortable at an in-person meeting, a virtual session should be offered separate to the in-person meetings. A sample critical incident stress debriefing summary is provided below: