Recognizing that prehospital care providers are often exposed to stressful situations during the course of their duties, the Office of Prehospital Care and the Erie County Division of Emergency Medical Services strongly encourage use of Critical Incident Stress Debriefing whenever deemed necessary. It is widely recognized that through "routine stress debriefing activities", the cumulative and detrimental effects of stress can be mitigated and thereby reduce the likelihood of "burn out" and other stress disorders.

Any time an EMS provider is exposed to a situation that is
deemed to present unusual stressors (e.g. multiple fatality,
child fatality, unusual complicated extrication, etc.), a stress debriefing session should be considered and the Western New York Stress Reduction Program should be contacted. A stress debriefing session can be scheduled by contacting the Erie County Communications Center (MERS Control) at 898-3696, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A representative of the team will return the call and a debriefing will be conducted as needed.

Click here to visit the Western New York Stress Reduction Web Site