The deaths of dozens of police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center illustrated the danger inherent in their professions.

While the terrorist attacks were an extraordinary event, public safety employees face life-and-death situations every day that can have a profound, lasting effect on their personal and working lives.

Providing critical incident stress management services to public safety employees helps them cope after the situation and be more effective on the job, said Richard T. Boland, coordinator of the Pittsburgh Critical Incident Stress Management Team and certified instructor for the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation Inc., Ellicott City, Md.

A critical incident causes emergency service personnel to experience unusually strong emotions that could interfere with the ability to function at the scene or later, such as the death of a firefighter or policeman while on duty or the death of a child, according to ICISFI.

"The demands on safety personnel bring with them the stresses that are beyond what we call the normal human experience," Boland told the Southwest Mercer County Regional Police Commission Tuesday.

That stress can manifest itself in a person in a number of ways, such as chills, difficulty breathing, confusion, nightmares, fear, guilt, drinking, withdrawal and anger at God, according to ICISFI.

Southwest Mercer County Regional police union is pushing for the police commission to adopt a policy to make CISM services available to police who face a critical incident while on duty.

"It's a benefit to all individuals who are faced with some pretty hairy situations every day," said Southwest Cpl. Andrew Thomas. "It's a coping mechanism."

If the commission follows through, Southwest will be the first Mercer County agency with a formal CISM policy, said John A. Libonati, director of pre-hospital care services for UPMC Horizon.

Boland, EMS operations coordinator for UPMC Health System, Pittsburgh, said UPMC and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, a UPMC affiliate, are putting together a regional CISM program.

Thomas said while there have not been many incidents locally that would be considered critical, a CISM team probably would have been able to help in instances such as the death of four children in a fire in 1998 in Farrell.

"You draw a gun on a guy or a guy pulls a gun on you, that gets to you after a while," he said.

At least four Mercer County policemen have called a confidential CISM hotline in the last three months to talk about on-the-job incidents, Libonati said.

CISM teams also include clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, mental health professionals, members of the clergy, policemen, firefighters, emergency medical personnel and dispatchers, said Boland, a trained paramedic and firefighter.

The peer component makes CISM programs more effective than traditional counseling, Boland said. A policeman can talk to a colleague who has had a similar experience.

"Life experiences are different when experienced by a police officer or a fireman," Thomas said. "You might go through life and not see one-tenth of what a policeman sees."

There are 900 CISM teams nationally, including those run by all branches of the military, Pennsylvania State Police and the FBI.

Some agencies require that an employee go through a CISM program after a critical incident before he or she is allowed to return to work, Boland said.

CISM programs are staffed by volunteers and do not charge either the departments or the employees.

"CISM was designed to take care of people and keep them working," said Boland, who worked with state police and FBI agents at the Shanksville, Pa., airplane crash site. "It was not designed to put people on worker's compensation."

Studies have shown that CISM programs have reduced instances of alcohol abuse and work call-offs, Boland said.

Libonati added that CISM teams can make referrals for people who are having problems such as marital or financial troubles, but is not an employee assistance program.

Southwest commission Chairman James DeCapua formed a committee to work on drafting a CISM policy.