We attended the European CISM Conference organised by ENAIRE
Sepla attended the European CISM Conference held on 13 and 14 October in Madrid organised by EUROCONTROL and ENAIRE. The two-day event, which brought together European organisations and other industry professionals, provided the perfect setting for a number of international experts to show how Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) is crucial to managing professional stress.
CISM (Critical Incident System Management) is a system of techniques, tactics and management approaches that are key to ensuring the well-being of people in high-stress jobs, such as pilots, police officers, firefighters, air traffic controllers, etc.
This system is used to help professionals manage stress reactions and prevent psychological harm associated with unusual and stressful events, as well as maintain their ability to continue to perform their primary role effectively and efficiently and without detriment to their own psychological health and well-being.
CISM is designed to help people deal with the trauma of a critical incident by enabling them to talk about it without judgement or criticism. The programme is peer-led and the people conducting the interventions are usually from the same group as the professional concerned or work in the mental health field.
All interventions are strictly confidential, except in cases where the intervention provider determines that the worker being helped is a danger to him or herself or others. In this situation it is mandatory to break confidentiality. Emphasis should always be placed on the ultimate goal of keeping people safe and returning them quickly to normal levels of functioning.
New challenges for the global CISM community
As the past two years have shown us, unexpected stressors have taken the global CISM community by surprise. In the near future, the aviation sector in Europe and worldwide will continue to face new challenges. This conference has brought together European organisations and other industry experts to discuss how best to build and adapt established ways of working to better serve our collectives.
Ordinary is different for everyone, and it is not easy to quantify. Critical incidents dramatically increase stress levels in a short period of time and after treatment a new normal is established, however, it is always higher than the previous level. The purpose of the intervention process is to establish or fix the new normal stress levels as low as possible.
Peers of the PAPI programme trained in CISM
All PAPI peers are trained in CISM as are our professional partners. If at any time you feel that one or more problems are getting the better of you and you think, “I can’t go on like this”, don’t hesitate to contact us. We’ll receive your message and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible, assigning you to the most appropriate “peer”.
We are here to listen to you, we are here to help you.
