Crisis management briefings (CMB): large group crisis intervention in response to terrorism, disasters, and violence

Abstract

A single act of violence or terrorism can adversely affect thousands of people. Such acts will invariably engender a psychological morbidity that will far surpass any physical morbidity. Heretofore, efforts in primary and secondary prevention have focused largely upon the physical consequences of these incidents, rather than their psychological consequences. This paper describes a practical group psychological crisis intervention, the "crisis management briefing" (CMB), that may be used with large groups of individuals in the wake of terrorism, violence, disasters, and other crises. This intervention, which is one component of the Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) crisis intervention system, is designed to mitigate the effects of these crises and requires anywhere from 45 to 75 minutes to implement. The CBM may be employed with groups ranging from 10 to 300 individuals at one time.