CISM Program Surry Nuclear Power Plant
What is CISM?
Why is a CISM program necessary for the agency?
Agency description, community, and social context
Prevention and Interventions
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
Interventions
Chronic health and innovative approaches
Cultural Issues
Proposed Budget .17
Critical incident stress management plays an important role in assuring the psychological resilience necessary for those who are exposed to a traumatic incident. This proposal outlines a program to add mental Health Services to the existing emergency management plan for the Surry Power Plant. The current plan does not address mental health issues, and this is an important need that will need to be considered in the future. The current plan will modify the existing plan through the addition of mental health services for the community.
Proposal: CISM Program
What is CISM?
A critical incident is any event that produces stress or trauma to personnel that are directly or indirectly involved. Stress reactions and symptoms vary among individuals and among the circumstances surrounding their proximity to the critical incident. Stress reactions to dramatic events can be influenced by a person's coping skills, personality, and their ability to adapt to the situation. If a person does not react in a way that is emotionally healthy, they can develop long-term symptoms that can last the rest of their life. Minor stress that is long-term can be just as damaging or harmful as acute stress that is of shorter duration.
Critical incident stress management (CISM) is a protocol that is designed to reduce the short- and long-term symptoms of stress cause by a dramatic event. CISM includes education that is designed to help the person adapt to the traumatic event into resume normal life as quickly as possible. The program also includes access to resources that can help individuals address the needs, such as cultural issues, or professional counseling if needed. It must be understood that CISM is not psychotherapy and does not replace psychotherapy, but it is a first step to facilitating the process of obtaining resources for healing as quickly as possible. The goal of CISM is to prevent the long-term effects of stress for the individual and their family.
CISM recognizes that the effects of the event do not end when the victims have all been transported to the medical facility, and the cleanup is complete. In the past, psychological effects of stress were not addressed at all. First responders were expected to have some type of special ability to handle what most cannot. They were expected to have a certain role in to portray a certain image of strength and emotional stamina to the rest of the world. However, it is now recognize that they do not have special powers and that they too can succumb to the stress associated with the critical incident. This program is being developed to help first responders obtain the help that they need to heal and attain a storm will lives as possible in a world that can seem filled with chaos.
Why is a CISM program necessary for the agency?
Nuclear energy is an important part for culture in the modern world in which we live. It has the ability to provide an abundant supply of energy upon which our nation is dependent. Nuclear energy is generally considered safe and reliable. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requires plants to operate with multiple layers of safety standards in place. The standards are a result of the reality that nuclear energy also has the ability to cause great harm to life and property if something should go wrong. Any incident that involves the release of radiation is potentially life threatening for citizens hundreds of miles away from the site. This potential is the key reason for the need to develop a critical incident stress management program that encompasses many levels of victims.
A critical incident that occurs in a nuclear energy facility differs in many ways from other critical incidents. The mechanism that causes the incident is less important than the effects of the potential radiation leak and its potential effects on the human body. Stress from the critical incident involving a nuclear power plant is not over when the situation is under control in the short-term effects of the accident are over. People in and around the facility, or those who were directly involved in the accident can have stress for many years concerning the effects of radiation on their body. This is a valid concern and one that needs to be specifically singled out and addressed in a CISM program at a nuclear power facility.
A CISM program is necessary...
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