J. Hammond et J. Brooks, The World Trade Center attack - Helping the helpers: the role of critical incident stress management, CRIT CARE, 5(6), 2001, pp. 315-317
Healthcare and prehospital workers involved in disaster response are suscep
tible to a variety of stress-related psychological and physical sequelae. C
ritical incident stress management, of which critical incident stress debri
efing is a component, can mitigate the response to these stressors. Critica
l incident stress debriefing is a peer-driven, therapist-guided, structured
, group intervention designed to accelerate the recovery of personnel. The
attack on the World Trade Center, and the impact it may have on rescue, pre
hospital, and healthcare workers, should urge us to incorporate critical in
cident stress management into disaster management plans.