About Westshore CIRS
The Westshore Critical Incident Response Service Team is made up of volunteers from Cuyahoga and Lorain Counties in the state of Ohio. The 31 member team assists public safety workers with the stress resulting from a critical incident. We are a member of the Ohio Critical Incident Stress Management Network. The Team incorporated as a non-profit organization in September of 2008. We are a 501c3 charity.
Our mission is to assist any and all emergency service workers and support staff in coping with the impact of a critical incident. The purpose of this assistance is to educate and provide the affected personnel with access to services available to help with the effects of a critical stress incident. This service will lessen the impact of incident stress, and accelerate the recovery from a critical incident.
A critical incident is an event during which the sights, sounds, and smells are so intense that they cause you to feel a significant increase in stress and stress reaction--immediate or delayed. Examples include the death or serious injury of a co-worker, an officer involved shooting and the death of a child.
The Westshore Critical Incident Response Service offers a variety of services.
Pre-Incident Education
On scene or near scene management
One-on-One intervention
Demobilization
Crisis Management Briefing
Defusing
Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD)
Family and Spousal Support
Community Crisis Response
Pastoral Crisis Intervention
We plan to expand our educational message by providing pre-incident training to individual departments and the general public. We will continue to get the word out about Critical Incident Stress Management and our team and assist public safety workers who encounter critical incidents in the performance of their duties.
While the Team is made up of public safety volunteers we are not affiliated with any public entity. This allows us to insure impartiality and confidentiality between the team and those we help. This means we receive no money from departments’ budgets, but rely on donations to fund our training and the supplies we need to carry out our mission.
We can be reached at 440-333-1237 or at info@westshorecirs.com.