ISSUES AND PRACTICES.pdf - The Counseling Team International

a year, goes to correctional facilities to conduct debriefings an average of 24 times a year, andconducts 6 to 10 trainings a week.As of 1999, The Counseling Team, a private for-profit counseling organization in SouthernCalifornia, served sheriff's departments in Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego countieswith a total of 1,280 correctional officers. The Counseling Team also serves more than 17California Department of Corrections and Youth Authority facilities from Los Angeles to theMexican border. In addition to its home office in San Bernardino, The Counseling Team hasestablished offices in Corona (1993), Victorville (1995), and San Diego (1999).Contractual arrangementsThe Counseling Team's services vary from agency to agency.The Counseling Team's contract with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Departmentcalls for the organization to provide psychological screening of applicants and individualcounseling and critical incident debriefings to all department employees (including 530correctional officers).The San Diego County Sheriff's Department contracts with The Counseling Team toserve the department's 3,300 employees, including its 300 uniformed correctional officersin seven jails. The contract calls for individual counseling and critical incidentdebriefings, overseeing a revamped peer support unit, and providing supervisory andacademy training.The Counseling Team provides individual counseling to Riverside County Sheriff'sDepartment employees, including its 450 correctional officers, providing same-dayresponse in crisis situations (because the EAP may not see the officer for a week). TheCounseling Team has trained all Riverside's peer supporters.Through a subcontract with the California Department of Corrections' employeeassistance program, The Counseling Team provides critical incident debriefings in DOCfacilities in Southern California.Institutional Division Victim Services Coordinator Elaine Smith ensures that Post Trauma StaffSupport members participate in all required training. She meets at least annually with regionalteam members to discuss how to improve the program's effectiveness and how to increaseawareness of the program. A Post Trauma Coordinating Committee, chaired by Smith and madeup of Institutional Division coordinators, meets quarterly to discuss the program and make finalselections of regional team members.ProcedureExhibit 3-4 shows the Post Trauma Program's procedure for activating the unit and regionalteams.Exhibit 3-4. Texas Post Trama Program Peer Support Process