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Fairfax County, Va., is one of two counties in the country that provide an urban search and rescue team organized by the federal Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance for aid in international disasters. The other county is Dade in Florida. Fairfax sent a rescue team consisting of four groups of six people each and two medical doctors to Nairobi.
The Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) team from Fairfax County is made up of five peer firefighters and 20 clinicians from the Woodburn Center for Community Mental Health who rotate responsibility for assisting with debriefings. The Woodburn clinicians are a collaborative, interdisciplinary team that includes psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, and clinical social workers. Psychiatrists from the team are available for medical consultations and prescribing medication.
Urban search and rescue teams were first developed six years ago after Hurricane Andrew. Members of these teams are trained to deal with disasters in towns and cities in which buildings are damaged or destroyed. CISM is changing and developing as firefighters and mental health professionals continue to learn about the mental health issues of rescue workers and the effects of disaster work on their lives.