Through the Michigan Crisis Response Association (MCRA), the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office has developed a peer-to-peer support team, registered under the name MCSO Peer Response Team. The peer response team provides confidential peer-to-peer support to members of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. The peer response team also provides Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) services to individuals with intentions of defusing problems before they become debilitating crises.
The peer response team can respond to and assist with critical incident situations with a goal to identify, reduce, or eliminate harmful effects of stress that may be the result of involvement in a critical incident. Stress and emotions resulting from a critical incident can be expressed in a controlled setting through proper defusing techniques.
The primary functions of members of the peer response team are to listen to and assess the needs of their peers and provide, if necessary, referral services to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and mental health professionals. Providing support and assistance to department members experiencing personal, job-related, or critical incident stress has proven to help maintain a healthy balance in employee mental health, emotions, morale, and productivity.