Butte Glenn Critical Incident Stress Management Team
The Team, founded in 1987, was one of the first in California. It is composed of firefighters, police personnel, paramedics, licensed counselors, and clergy from fire and law enforcement agencies of Butte and Glenn Counties. Chico Fire Department currently has one member on the Team. The Team has provided assistance to nearly 2,500 emergency personnel since its inception.
A critical incident is any emergency incident that goes beyond the normal human coping ability. Examples of stressful events are death of co-workers, especially line of duty deaths, mass casualty situations and tragic deaths of children. It has been demonstrated that after a critical incident, emergency personnel can suffer depression, which can lead to family break-ups and loss of employment. The goal of a debriefing is to prevent this by allowing those personnel involved a chance to ventilate reactions to the incident in a controlled environment and allow them to get back to work as soon as possible in the best frame of mind possible.