What is Critical Incidents and Critical Incident Stress?
A critical incident is an event which causes or has the potential to cause a significant increase in stress and stress reactions. The stress reaction may be immediate or delayed.
How a person or group experiences and reacts to stressful or critical incidents depends on perception and interpretation of the event as well as other factors.
All individuals react to stress in their own way…but some common reactions may include: heightened emotions, irritability/anger, difficulty sleeping, changes in appetite, re-experiencing the incident, changes in concentration and memory, disruption of normal routine.
Stress from exposure to critical incidents cannot be prevented, as it is an occupational hazard inherent in first response services, but it can be managed.
Incident which produces an intense level of immediate or delayed emotional response
Death or injury of an emergency responder.
Loss of a patient following an unusual or extremely prolonged expenditure of emotional and physical energy by the personnel.
Death or severe injury of a child.
Mass casualties or multiple fatalities.
An accumulation of stressful incidents within a short period of time or multiple incidents at the same time.