CIRT Team Continues Advanced Training at W3 Center

The Transportation Department’s Critical Incident Response Training (CIRT) team recently held its fourth annual class at the Winpisinger Center (W3). The 30 participants applied the knowledge and experience they gained from their first three years on the team into this year’s advanced curriculum.

  

“The IAM will continue to implement new training classes and provide all necessary resources to our CIRT team and EAP professionals to provide our members the support they need,” said General Vice President Sito Pantoja.

 

This year’s class was taught by Dr. Jeffrey Mitchell, Clinical Professor and Cofounder of the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. The class focused on Advanced Crisis Intervention: Strategies and Tactics for Complex Situations, and featured guest speakers from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) including Allison Davis, who works in the Victim Services Division.

Ms. Davis, left, did a presentation on her department’s roles and responsibilities when they are deployed to a crisis situation. She provided great insight, invaluable information and shared resources available to the CIRT team when needed.

 

The members of the class are active Employee Assistance Program (EAP) representatives selected from all three districts of the Transportation Department. The main goal of the annual courses is to train the students on how to best help individuals cope with the effects of a traumatic event or critical incident.

 

The class was developed by the Transportation Department in response to the horrific Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016 in Orlando, which directly affected some of its members.

 

Since its inception, the CIRT team has responded to numerous incidents including the aftermath of a deadly hurricane season, a fatal incident aboard a Southwest Airlines plane forced to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia and last year’s shootings in a Henry Pratt manufacturing plant in Aurora, IL and a Walmart store in El Paso, TX.