Critical Incident Debriefing Team (CIDT)

More on the CIDT process is on the Member pages

Are you interested in preserving the high quality of your climbing and outdoor pursuits? Have you experienced a near miss on a mountain or a trail that left you feeling . . .  Cautious?. . .  Uncertain?. . .  Spooked?. . .  Something else?

Have you decreased your climbing, or stopped?

If so, maybe that situation still remains. It’s normal to have these stress responses to unexpected, traumatic and inadvertent events.

Incident response debriefings are indicated whenever one’s usual coping abilities have become overwhelmed. A fatal accident does not have to take place to ask for a debriefing; a close call is often more than enough to leave one feeling out of sorts and to set off acute and chronic stress responses.

Debriefings can promote self-healing by accelerating the natural processes of reorganizing and restructuring the experience of the event. They can prevent long term problems and facilitate healthy grieving, moving one to feel better faster.

Debriefings contain two parts; first, an orchestrated narrative where each person involved relates their experience, then an educational component about stress responses and coping techniques. The focus is what happened to you and how you are doing, not on what you did. Debriefings are totally confidential, amazingly simple and they WORK!

Mazamas has a group of trained peer debriefers. We are Mazamas members who volunteer to assist other Mazamas with this important process.  Debriefings are ideally conducted 24 to 72 hours after an incident but even if years have passed a debriefing can help restore equilibrium. It’s most effective if everyone in the party can attend.

You do not have to be a leader - any Mazama member can ask for a debriefing. Just like on a climb, if you need a belay for security; ask for it.  Think of debriefings are your “recovery belay”.

Call the Mazama Mountaineering Center (503) 227-2345, leave a message with your name, number and that you are interested in a debriefing. Remember, stress reactions are normal, just like resiliency and adaptation. All contacts are handled in the strictest confidence.

If you are interested in joining the CIDT, please call the office or anyone on the team for additional information.