Crisis Intervention
Date: June 25, 2007

The phone calls always begin the same–with bad news. The situation is so dire that additional help is needed, and that is when three Floyd employees stop what they are doing, go directly to the problem and…listen.

Floyd Chaplain Gary Batchelor, director of language services Liz Varo and Heyman HospiceCare bereavement coordinator Marcia Atkins are members of Floyd County’s Crisis Intervention Stress Management (CISM) team, and one day a couple of months ago, each of their services were needed in the worst of ways.

The call came the morning of April 5. An area high school was buzzing with rumors that a student had committed suicide the night before, and teachers, administrators and counselors were overwhelmed with questions and needed to talk about the tragedy. A tide of grief, anger and curiosity had swept through, catching classmates and staff members off guard.

At first, school administrators had attempted to keep the day as normal as possible, not making any kind of formal announcements about the incident, but in this age of text messages and email, the rumor mill was churning.

Stress levels built to a critical mass just before lunch, when students began flooding the office with tears and in need of counseling. The school called an area youth minister, who, in turn, called Gary. Gary quickly recognized this was a crisis situation and called the CISM team.

“This was out of our control. We needed help,” Gary said.

The team was first structured to help emergency personnel who often are the first on the scene of tragedies. The team traces its origin back to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon. CISM teams were set up to help these community servants deal with their feelings, to understand what they had been through, to share their feelings in a protected environment, to educate participants about normal stress reactions and ultimately, to try to head off full-blown post-traumatic stress disorder.

To qualify for the CISM, Gary, Liz, Marcia and other members of the team trained for four full days and agreed to serve when called. In addition, both Marcia and Liz had additional training that proved particularly beneficial for this tragedy. Marcia’s work with Heyman HospiceCare uniquely positioned her to understand the grief these students and the faculty were feeling. Liz, who has counseling experience and is fluent in Spanish, added a much-needed listening ear since many of the students were Hispanic.

The team divided the students into groups, secured areas where they could talk and listen privately, and for the next two and a half hours, helped the students deal with this unexpected stress.

After a half-hour break, faculty and staff began meeting with the team. The counseling with the adults continued for another two hours.

Liz is confident the team made an impact.

“My group had a revolving door. As some students were leaving, more were coming in,” she said. By the end of the student counseling sessions, Liz had talked with dozens of students, one of whom admitted to her that she was struggling with suicidal thoughts. “I got the students to open up. The debriefing was working. I was helping.”

And, from our trauma center to community volunteers like Liz, Marcia and Gary, helping is what Floyd is all about.

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