About Us

On July 1, 2019, the Wood County Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Team officially launched into service providing support and care for emergency services agencies in Wood County (Wisconsin) and their partners. The CISM team took over a year to develop and was created under the work of representatives from Wood County Human Services Department, Wood County Sheriff’s Department, Wood County Dispatch, Marshfield Fire Department, Marshfield Police Department, Wisconsin Rapids Police Department, Wisconsin Rapids Fire Department, Nekoosa Ambulance, and Riverview Hospital. This core administrative team continues to provide oversight for the Wood County CISM Team. 

The purpose of the CISM team is to assist Wood County emergency services personnel in processing the events of the unusual and traumatic incidents they are often exposed to in their line of work. The team does not provide psychotherapy, but coordinate debriefings typically within 24-72 hours from when a critical incident is identified. The debriefings are a safe environment in which emergency services personnel can share their experiences and emotions with other peers and mental health professionals and begin the process of healing following their experience. Mental health professionals and peers are an integral part of the team, and if an emergency services worker is still having difficulty processing the incident following the debriefing, additional assistance can be coordinated for the individual.  

The CISM team provides services to and is comprised of members from emergency services agencies throughout Wood County and their affiliates from immediately surrounding counties. This includes all 7 Wood County law enforcement agencies, both hospitals, all Wood County departments, all fire departments and EMS services in Wood County and all first responders groups that work with agencies from Wood County. If requested, the CISM team will also assist our neighboring communities. 

The reason for the formation of this team, which is one of a few coordinated regional teams in the state, was to address the important topic of mental wellness among emergency services personnel. Although challenging statistics to keep, in 2019, there were known to be 202 Police/Corrections officer suicides, 146 Fire/EMS suicides and 6,826 active military/veteran suicides. It is not well identified how many doctors, nurses, social workers, or other service providers struggle as well. While various attempts have been made to address these concerns, more continues to be needed.  The goal of the CISM team is to provide immediate supports to those serving our communities and to try to fill in some of the much needed care for our front line personnel. In the past, negative stigma surrounding mental health and the misinformed belief that responders had to be able to “just deal with it” following the things they saw at work, led to silent suffering and impeded the quest for mental wellness across organizations. In order to shift this trend in a positive direction, the Wood County CISM team concept was created. 

While the Wood County CISM team officially started in July, during its formation there were incidents which required intervention by personnel trained in critical incident stress management. Due to this need, the first critical incident stress debriefing took place after an incident in the Town of Saratoga in September of 2018. Since that incident, there have been 25 additional requests for support at multiple locations around Wood County. In the 26 debriefing sessions, almost 300 emergency service personnel that have attended and benefitted from the services provided by the CISM team. Activation requests have increased as the benefits are noted and awareness of the CISM team grows.  

Currently, the Wood County CISM team is comprised of approximately 40 personnel from multiple organizations around the county. The team is stand-alone in the sense that no one agency is responsible for the group and it is a collaborative effort. Each agency can decide if they will pay their members who are on the CISM team to respond as debriefers or if they are volunteering their time. There is not a cost to any department requesting to utilize the team, but the CISM team relies heavily on community support for funding. Administrative costs, training costs, organizational costs and all other costs for the CISM team are covered strictly through donations, grants and fund-raising efforts. In the future, the CISM team also hopes to host community events for family and friends of emergency services personnel as they are also a major part of the blueprint to enhance mental wellness. In the past two years, we have received grants and donations from the following agencies: North Central Regional Trauma Advisory Council, Marshfield Clinic Health System, Inc., WE Energies Foundation, Erie Insurance, Incourage Community Foundation Inc., Town of Rome Fire Department Fund, Town of Cameron Fire Department, Wisconsin Rapids Fire Department, Crossview Church, Town of Saratoga, WI Fire Chiefs Association, Marshfield Fire Fund, Romano’s and NAMI. We thank them for their support of the Wood County CISM team! 

For more information about the Wood County CISM team, please contact us at info@woodcocism.org. You can find additional information on our website at https://www.woodcocism.org. If you wish to make a donation to the CISM program, please contact us via email, visit our website, or support usdirectly at paypal.me/WoodCountyCITCISM.  If you are a licensed mental health professional and have interest in joining the team, please reach out as well.