International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc.
International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc.
By: Raymond B. Flannery, Jr., Ph.D., FACLP
On March 31, 2020, the Assaulted Staff Action Program (ASAP, the prototype of the Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) program, completed its thirtieth year of continuous service to employee victims.
ASAP is a voluntary, system-wide, peer-help crisis intervention service to address the psychological aftermath of patient assaults and other types of violence against employee victims. Utilizing crisis intervention procedures, ASAP seeks to reduce the psychological fear and psychological trauma that may occur with the goal of restoring reasonable mastery and functioning and precluding the onset of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
ASAP employs both individual and group crisis intervention procedures, staff victim support groups, family counseling of the children of employee victims, and referrals to individual therapists who specialize in treating psychological trauma and PTSD, when indicated.
In its thirty years, there have been 45 ASAP teams in 9 states. There have been 2,300 volunteer ASAP team members who have responded to 10,651 patent assaults on staff and volunteered 2.4 million hours of service e top their respective facilities. There have been ASAP teams in state and vendor inpatient and outpatient mental health facilities as well as mental health community residences, day programs, and homeless shelters. Since ASAP is versatile in its application, there have also been ASAP teams fielded for large medical centers, the Red Cross, a state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, adult prisons and juvenile delinquency settings, an aquarium, and the mandated family assistance center of a large international airport. ASAP has garnered several local, state and national awards over its thirty years and has been selected as a best innovative program by the Ministry of Health in the Canadian province of Ontario, and by the Department of Health, Education, and welfare of the United States government.
Suggested Readings:
Flannery, R.B., Jr. The Assaulted Staff Action Program: Coping with Psychological Aftermath of Violence. New York, NY: American Mental Health Association, 2012.
Flannery, R.B., Jr. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: The victim’s Guide to Healing and Recovery. Second Edition. New York, NY: American Mental Health Association, 2012.
Every, G.S., Jr., & Mitchell, J.T. Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM): A New Era and standard of Care in Crisis Intervention. Second Edition. Ellicott city, MD: Chevron Publishing Corporation, 1999.
Dr. Flannery is the Director of the Assaulted Staff Action Program (ASAP) and is on the faculties of Harvard and the University of Massachusetts Medical Schools.
Copyright © 2025 International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc
International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc is a 501(c)3 Non Profit