Our thanks to Jeffrey T Mitchell PhD for his contribution to this article.

Why should we create a Peer Support program for our agency, workplace or organization? What does a peer support program do? How can we help the people around us who are hurting?

These questions are becoming more commonplace as violence and heartbreak permeate the screens we are so attracted to. Emotional trauma is experienced by more of our friends and neighbors than we realize. Having a well organized and dedicated peer program can be a life saving tool when someone is suffering from the effects of their experiences. Emotional trauma can happen any time or anywhere. The most frequently recognized sufferers are military groups and first responders, for understandable reasons. However, any individual or group can be witness to an event that causes emotional trauma.

Let’s discuss what emotional trauma is first. When a person is a witness to, or victim of an emotionally stressful event and the experience causes an overwhelming emotional response the mind cannot properly integrate, it becomes emotional trauma or emotional injury. Their minds become trapped in *¹hamster wheel of continuously trying to categorize the mental and physical memories they experience with a traumatic event. The memories will continue to spin like a hamster on its wheel, preventing them from healing.

Publicly recognized traumatic events like workplace violence, Line of Duty Deaths, severe weather disasters or war are more obvious instigators of psychological trauma. Normal everyday life events can also present us with situations that can trigger emotional trauma. Divorce, familial loss or accidents are just a few circumstances people experience every day that can begin a struggle with emotional trauma.

An individual’s response to an event may or may not become an emotional injury. Just like a resting heart rate is relative to each person’s current health or circumstances, people process stressful events differently. The impact of stress is relative to each person experiencing it at that particular time.

*²IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH STRENGTH OR WEAKNESS OF MIND.

At any given time, someone may be exposed to a negative stress factor. To one person – divorce may be a welcome conclusion to a long-term problem. To another it may not be emotionally resolved so easily. Either of these persons may begin showing signs of not being able to process the feelings surrounding the divorce in a healthy manner. The inability to process these feelings can become emotional trauma or injury.

Where does peer support fit in? What about employee assistance programs or EAP?

A Peer Support or Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) team is not a replacement for psychiatric or medical treatment. What peer support provides is a personal contact who is trained in a minimum of *³Assisting Individuals in Crisis and *⁴Group Crisis Intervention, who often will share attributes with the injured person. The peer responder can be a fellow veteran or an employee in the same field. They could share a commonality related to their crisis, such as the type of incident experienced. This shared experience offers a measure of trust and understanding between the victim and the responder.  The suffering person or people are not looking for a superficial nod or a big hug and a pat on the back. They need someone who can use their training and experience to explain why the victim of emotional trauma is suffering the way they are. They need someone to point the way down the road to recovery, when their soul is lost in the darkness. In the book Sister Mary, The Baker, The Barber and the Bricklayer⁵ Josey refers to the number of times a victim has stated “If only I had known that, it would have made my recovery so much easier.”  If the peer gives a traumatized person a heads-up about the reactions that might happen and then it does happen, they can recognize it and understand it better. In so much as giving them a Roadmap of the pitfalls ahead.

 The peer responder is also available 24/7 – not only during office hours through a packed waiting room. Calling on a peer support team member is simply reaching out to someone who “gets it”. Someone who has been in their shoes in some way. The victim is assured of privacy. Their identity or personal information will never be shared with employers, superiors, or any other person. The responders act as solid lifelines in acute situations.

Early intervention by trained peer support or CISM providers can prevent further damage to individuals or groups by giving them tools for survival. Institutional morale and productivity are improved when there is good emotional health. Devastating circumstances like suicide and workplace violence can also be reduced where there are resources for recognizing and assisting with stress and emotional trauma.

Peer Support or Critical Incident Stress Management is an exceptionally valuable resource for any area where groups or individuals are working or living. I encourage you to contact The Roadmap Company at TheRoadmapCompany@gmail.com or the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation at ICISF.org for further information about starting a Peer Support program or training for your providers.

*1 – Lesson 8 “The Human Brain, Trauma, and Hamster Wheels” – from the book Crucial Moments: Stories of Support in Times of Crisis by Jeffrey T Mitchell PhD and William “Josey” Visnovske.

*2 – See Getting Past Looking Weak at; https://theroadmapcompany.com/media/

*3 – https://icisf.org/individual-crisis-intervention-and-peer-support/

*4 – https://icisf.org/group-crisis-intervention/

*5 – https://crucialmoments.org/book-2-sister-mary-the-baker-the-barber-and-the-bricklayer/