Cedar Rapids Fire Department forms Critical Incident Stress Team

CEDAR RAPIDS - When it comes to help, firefighters are often better at giving it than asking for it, said Cedar Rapids Fire Captain Eric Vandewater.

But since the beginning of 2015, Vandewater and others at the fire department - with the assistance of Dr. Jim Coyle, a counselor with Cedar Memorial who specializes in sudden and unexpected life loss - are working to shift that way of thinking.

'We're trying to change a culture,” Vandewater said.

The fire department formed a Critical Incident Stress Team in 2015 and, after more than a year of training 20 officers at Cedar Memorial with Coyle, unveiled the initiative this week. The team strives to provide emotional, physical and spiritual support for firefighters, civilian employees and their families through a tiered approach of interactions.

'The team was put together to provide an immediate response to an unexpected, tragic event,” Coyle said.

Cedar Rapids Fire Chief Mark English said he immediately approved the team when it was proposed by Vandewater and Coyle, who has worked with the department through its chaplains program.

'It's a very valuable resource for us,” English said. 'Our people see a lot of things they'd rather not see ... It doesn't have to be the biggest, baddest, most gruesome incident.”

English said he has seen firefighters' lives derailed by an inadequate response to a traumatic incident, and that's something he doesn't want to see in Cedar Rapids.

Vandewater, who is also chief of the North Liberty Fire Department, said firefighters can bring the stress of the work home with them, citing a fatality involving a child as an example.

'It can be a snowball effect,” he said. 'It's going to affect their family, it's going to affect their kids.”

Coyle, who has also worked with Homeland Security to respond to mass casualty events, said people can experience shock, denial, anger and hopelessness after a tragic event. Those feelings can linger and affect every relationship of that person's life. The three levels of the Critical Incident Stress Team's response aim to mitigate that emotional toil.

Level 1 is peer-to-peer interactions, with firefighters reaching out to fellow firefighters after a traumatic call for service or even an incident at home, such a death or divorce. Coyle gets involved at Level 2, with stress team members engaging in group debriefings of the incident. At Level 3, Coyle will engage in one-on-one meetings with the affected firefighter.

To date, there have been 90 Level 1 interactions, 17 Level 2 interactions and 19 Level 3 interactions.

Vandewater - who said the CIST has been well-received - said firefighters train extensively to stay safe and watch each others' back on calls for service. Extending that protection only made sense, he said.

'Why wouldn't we do that at the station, too?” he said.

Sgt. Cristy Hamblin of the Cedar Rapids Police Department said they are in the early stages of adopting a similar program suited to police officers.