Select one of the following critical issues located in the Taking Sides text: • Issue 4: Are Blocked and Recovered Memories Valid Phenomena? • Issue 11: Should Psychologists Prescribe Medication? (see...

Critical Issue Analysis: Is Psychological Debriefing a
Harmful Intervention for Survivors of Trauma?
The current issue is that of psychological debriefing and Critical Incident Stress
Debriefing / Management (CISD / M). The first challenge is to understand the meaning of
these terms, the difference between them (if any) and their implications in use and practice.
The second, but more important challenge is to analyze whether psychological debriefing,
CISD and CISM are potentially harmful or beneficial.
On one side of the matter, we have Grant J. Devilly and Peter Cotton who assert that
CISD is neither properly defined, nor effective and can actually do harm to the clients. On the
other side of the matter, we have Jeffrey T. Mitchell representing the International Critical
Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF) who states that the information presented by the former,
Devilly and Cotton is a misrepresentation. They assert that a lack of understanding
psychological debriefing has led to a confused report and they attempt to clear up the
confusion.
What are at least two facts presented by each side of the critical issue?
To support their argument, Devilly and Cotton quoted Everly et al. (2000) describing “a
new generation of intervention technologies.” They go on to say that CISM is a larger and
more encompassing approach. Another fact they presented was that CISD is a somewhat
loosely defined concept in the field. They also presented the fact that is a review of CISD/M
the authors included “Assualt Staff Action Programs” and a different outcome measure of
how many time the staff was assaulted.
Mitchell has also presented certain facts to support his side of the argument. He admits
that the terms have evolved over time and have not been entirely consistent. He quotes two
paragraphs that were on the website of ICISF and its training workbooks in 1998 and 2001.
These quotes were meant to clears such confusion. Another two facts presented to clarify
certain misrepresentations were two quote from Dr...