Patty Stewart McCord’s career in helping professions in 1990-1991, as a Nationally Registered EMT/ EMT-Intermediate on a rural volunteer ambulance service in Sherwood North Dakota. She became a founding member of the North Dakota CISM Team in 1992, where she moved up the ranks from trained peer, regional team coordinator, and in 1998 became an authorized Instructor for the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF) Instructor. She returned to the Minot State University and in 1999 earned a Bachelor of General Studies degree, majoring in Social Work with concentrations in psychology and counselling. Thus began an extraordinary career providing training, resources and expertise in disaster mental health for public safety, healthcare workers and Indigenous communities throughout North America.
After immigrating to Canada in 2000, she continued to facilitate several different ICISF courses for municipal, provincial and federal agencies as well as Indigenous communities throughout Canada and the United States. She has trained peers and mental health professionals in critical incident stress management and provided crisis intervention and disaster mental health services to public safety personnel and healthcare workers for more than 30 years. She has served as the Executive Director for the Sask. CISM Network; the program developer and co-lead for Sask. Health Authority CISM Peer Support Program during COVID19; the team lead and consultant for the Sask. Public Safety Agency and other Ministries in Saskatchewan and has been involved in facilitating support for the crisis response in a variety of large scale mass casualty events in Canada and the United States throughout her career.
In 2017 Patty was honoured with the Premier’s Award for Excellence in Public Service for her involvement in providing mental health support to Victim Services workers in the aftermath of the shootings at the La Loche Dene School. In February 2023 she received the Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee Medal for her knowledge and actions in support of healthcare workers during the pandemic. Her skills and experience were honoured at the 2023 International Critical Incident Stress Foundation World Congress when she received the ICISF Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to the field of critical incident stress management over the past 32 years. She is the Canadian Representative to the ICISF Board of Directors.
Stewart McCord has published articles, developed training modules and is the co-author of the ICISF course “Healing Ways: Group Crisis Interventions for Indigenous Peoples” with Marlene Mirasty.