Alexandria, VA – The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International has filed a Project Initiation with ANSI and has issued a call for workgroup members to participate in the creation of an ANSI standard that would establish criteria for developing a Public Safety Telecommunicator Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) Program.

This standard will provide communications center stakeholders and management with requirements for a CISD Program specifically geared towards identifying and assisting public safety telecommunicators in a next generation environment.

“An effective CISD program is a critical operational component not only today, but especially in a fast-paced, high emotion NG9-1-1 environment where staff may be more exposed to incident-related pictures and videos,” said APCO International President Holly Wayt.

APCO International is looking for a well-balanced group that will include contributions from technical and operational subject matter experts. The time and day that the writing group will meet is yet to be established. It is anticipated that the writing group will meet via conference calls twice a month for the duration of this project and calls typically last no more than an hour.

Anyone interested should complete the online application and indicate their preference for this workgroup.

Public Safety Telecommunicator Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) Program

The application deadline is October 21, 2018.  Selections will be made within two weeks of the deadline and all applicants will be notified of their status.