CISM: Fostering Resilience in Rural Montana
By: Teresa Majerus
The Tri-County CISM team of Central Montana serves Fergus, Judith Basin and Petroleum Counties. There are 8 ambulance services with 90 volunteer EMTs and 18 fire stations with 260 volunteer firefighters to cover the 7,895 square miles of these three rural counties. The volunteer personnel work predominantly in the agricultural industry and so they must take time away from their livelihoods to complete the necessary training and respond to calls for service. The long distances from medical facilities and outside resources, combined with the severity of a number of their calls, places additional stress on these volunteers.
Over the past several years, agricultural reports have focused on the mental health of farmers and ranchers as they experience the economical and emotional impacts of the drought. Stress stacking is a term used to denote the multiple levels of stress in which farmers and ranchers are under. When rural emergency personnel receive a call, they are often working to save a neighbor’s property or dealing with an accident involving a family member or neighbor. These calls add additional layers of stress to the already stressful rural life.
Last fall I attended the ICISF conference in San Antonio, TX. I felt a little overshadowed as large city CISM team members shared stories of their crisis incidents and the management of intense debriefings. I then mentally compared our small team of 25 trained CISM members and realized that, even though our rural incidents were smaller in comparison, the role of debriefings for our rural volunteers was equally important. The opportunity to process intense experiences helps maintain volunteers’ mental health as they return to their farms and ranches and continue their daily lives not knowing when the incident will occur. Long term, the debriefing process is helping maintain longevity of volunteers and improves individual emotional responses when called out to the next incident.
In August of 2021, Fergus county experienced the beginning of an unprecedented fire season. The Taylor Fire (August 2, 2021) burned roughly 27,000 acres. October 5th of 2021 was the Moccasin Mountain fire that burned 12,800 acres, killed cattle and destroyed a number of structures. To add to an already stressed community, on the evening of December 1, 2021 high winds downed power lines the West Wind Fire. This fire destroyed grazing land and winter hay for the cattle as it sped toward the rural community of Denton, Montana. As the fire reached the small town one of the grain mills ignited. The town was engulfed in smoke and embers were being spread across the town. All rural departments in the Tri-county area, as well as multiple departments from around the state responded. In its aftermath, 25 structures in the small town were destroyed and at least one volunteer lost his home.
Our CISM team conducted a debriefing in the community fire hall which was heavy with the smell of smoke. Turnout for the debriefing was large for our standards, with approximately 45 firefighters and several EMT’s in attendance. These volunteers were physically exhausted and emotionally drained after several days of fighting to save the homes of friends and neighbors. At least one firefighter was forced to leave his home and continue working on other structures that could potentially be saved. The debriefing, though difficult, went well and had a positive outcome for those present. To this day, we still receive comments of the positive impact the debriefing has had.
The Tri County CISM team exists to provide a support service that will enable personnel to lessen the impact of distressing critical incidents and accelerate recovery from those events before harmful stress reactions have a chance to damage their performance, careers, health and families. Our team did an outstanding job that evening and were able to provide support to volunteers who are not attached to professional departments that offer mental health support.
To the passing traveler, Central Montana may look like a place where “there’s nothing out there”. In my 16 years of working with our volunteer departments I can attest that the middle of nowhere is filled with men and women who have very big hearts and will drop what they are doing at a moment’s notice to run to the aid of someone in need.