In response to the tragic events of September 11^th, the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and the Department of Children and Families, in partnership with CTRP, have developed a behavioral health crisis plan that addresses the needs of children and adults in the event of natural or man-made disasters.

As part of the crisis response, DMHAS and DCF have formed five Behavioral Health Regional Crisis Response Teams that will provide time-limited crisis intervention services to affected individuals and communities. These Teams are comprised of DMHAS and DCF staff, personnel deployed by private not-for-profit agencies in the DMHAS and DCF systems and independent behavioral health volunteers from other community-based organizations and private practice settings.

As of February 2004, just under 400 behavioral health providers from across the State of Connecticut have met the criteria for membership on the Regional Crisis Response Teams. See "Duties of Regional Crisis Response Team Members."  (below)

Requirements for Participation on a Crisis Response Team

All staff participating on Regional Crisis Response Teams must meet each of the following requirements:

1. Complete CTRP Training programs, including:

• CTRP Phase I Training
  
• Team Formation Training
  
• CTRP Phase II Specialty Training focusing on one of the following specialty areas: cultural competency, services for the elderly, children and adolescents, health care providers, or first responders.
  
• Following completion of the initial training described above, each team member must participate in one full-day or two half-day training activities annually, specifically designated for team members.

2. Sign a “Statement of Understanding” that signifies a willingness to be called upon in the event of a major disaster. This document will be provided to you for signature at the completion of your required training. 

Staff will also be asked to attend Regional Team Meetings from time to time throughout the year.  These meetings are not required to remain in good standing on the Team but attendance at the meetings will be strongly encouraged.

(If you are a private practitioner or your agency has elected not to participate in the crisis response network, you may choose to become a member of a Regional Crisis Response Team as an independent volunteer.  Under those circumstances, you would be serving in a voluntary capacity working as a private individual on the Team. In the event of a disaster you would need to arrange leave time with your agency and negotiate whether your leave is paid or unpaid time off.)

If you would like to begin fulfilling the requirements for participation on a Regional Crisis Response Team by completing CTRP Phase I Training, Team Formation Training and CTRP Phase II Specialty Trainings, please visit the CTRP web pages entitled CTRP Training. 

Once you register for your first training with CTRP, the vital information that you provide with that registration will be entered into our database.  At that point, we will make contact with you.

Duties of Regional Crisis Response Team Members

• Provides short-term crisis intervention and supportive counseling (i.e., “psychological first aid”),

• Provides outreach and advocacy to victims, family members, and the community at large.

• Provides consultation and technical assistance to local community groups.

• Provides debriefing and defusing services to responders, businesses, and other groups as necessary.

• Tracks crisis related activity performed by local teams and reports to DMHAS/DCF Regional Command Center.

• Provides community education through Speaker’s Bureaus or other educational activities.

It is anticipated that Team members will develop specialized expertise in order to provide assistance to the following groups:

a.      Families, schools and child care providers

b.      Elderly adults

c.      Health care providers

d.      Outreach to culturally diverse populations

e.      First Responders (police, fire and EMS personnel)  

In addition, certain staff will be designated as lead staff to serve as liaisons to the Media, Logistics (handling deployment scheduling), and Information (providing timely communication within the crisis response command structure) and to serve as lead staff for the five specialty areas enumerated above.

Start-Up Time Commitment

Staff are required to participate in certain activities or trainings in order to assure that they possess and maintain minimum skill levels necessary to function as Team members. All incoming Team members are required to complete the following Orientation Training online and to participate in their first annual Disaster Simulation to be qualified to serve in this capacity:

*View training materials presented on the CTRP web site using “web-streaming” technology.

Annual Training - On-Going Time Commitment

Upon activation of a Team (or a portion of the Team) during a disaster, DMHAS/DCF is expecting that team members would be available for a minimum of 5 days to provide crisis interventions to affected communities. This may be extended up to 10 days based upon availability and the scope of the disaster.

Conditions for Deployment

Staff will only be deployed in disasters of significant scope and impact and would supplement the rapid response capacities of state-operated CISM and crisis teams. The Commissioners of DCF and DMHAS would activate the Regional Response Teams under the following circumstances:

State or Federally Declared Disasters

• A state or federally declared disaster is any event real or perceived that threatens the well being of citizens in multiple locales throughout the state and overwhelms the local and state ability to respond and recover, or the event affects state and federally owned property or interests. In addition, a state or federally declared disaster may be declared in response to a disaster that threatens an entire region of the country or the entire nation. 

• Only the President of the United States may designate a federally declared disaster. The Governor of a state must first request a Presidential declaration of disaster.

• The duration of the response for this type of disaster will be for the duration of the event or until it is jointly determined that a response is no longer needed by the Governor’s Office in collaboration with the Office of Emergency Management. The response will be for the duration of the grant period if a FEMA Crisis Counseling Program Grant is obtained. 

DMHAS/DCF Funded Agencies

Agencies contracting with DMHAS or DCF are asked to participate on a voluntary basis (no additional contract resources are presently available).  If an agency chooses to participate, it may select personnel who then will receive specialized training provided by CTRP.  Many staff from private not-for-profit agencies have already received this training and additional training will be made available as necessary.  If their employer agrees to sponsor a particular staff member, that individual staff would participate in the behavioral health crisis response and preparedness system within the scope of their paid employment at the private not-for-profit agency.  During deployment in an actual crisis situation, Team members will receive supervision related to their crisis response duties from a DMHAS or DCF Regional Team Leader. Administrative supervision will remain the responsibility of the private non-profit. One of the benefits to the private non-profit agency is that the agency’s capacity to respond in a local crisis will be greatly enhanced.

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