Mission Statement
To promote resilience in all citizens of the Commonwealth following a disaster or critical incident through pre-incident preparedness training and post–incident reduction of disabling stress by recruiting, training, and maintaining a statewide credentialed team of regional response ready volunteers to provide critical incident stress management.
Vision: KCCRT will be an extensively recognized community resource that provides crisis intervention services and will be fully integrated into emergency response plans developed for the Commonwealth.
Services Offered
Our services and responses are twofold:
- Kentucky Community Crisis Response Team (KCCRT) is activated by a Governor’s Disaster Declaration in the case of natural or manmade disasters to provide psychological first aid.
- KCCRT provides Rapid Assessment & Response Teams deployed on request to mitigate stress reactions to critical incidents and traumatic events.
KCCRT
The Kentucky Community Crisis Response Team (KCCRT) is a multi-disciplinary, dynamically trained team of dedicated emergency service workers and Mental Health Professionals who volunteer their time to assist peers who encounter a critical incident. Team members are peer driven, mental health supported and guided by experts in critical incident stress management. KCCRT has peer members from all areas of emergency service work, schools, and organizations outside of the emergency services field.
KCCRT Members are from a variety of disciplines volunteer their time to provide these services. These include: Behavioral Health, Coroners, Education, Emergency Management, Faith-Based, 911 Dispatchers, Fire & EMS Service, Hospice, Law Enforcement, Massage Therapists, Medical, Military, Public Health, Search & Rescue. The KCCRT also has a specialized K9 Compassion Strike Team and a Coroners Strike Team to work with families who must provide information to identify their loved one.
In 2016 the Kentucky Law Enforcement Assistance Program (KYLEAP) was formed as a specialized peer support team of Law Enforcement who are trained specifically to provide Critical Incident Stress Management Interventions to other Law Enforcement during and following a critical incident. KCCRT also provides the training When the Person you Love is a Law Enforcement Officer to spouses and significant others of law enforcement.
The following year, in 2017, the Kentucky Emergency Services Peer Support (KESPS) team was created to provide a specialized peer support team of fire fighters, EMS personnel, and dispatchers. The volunteer members of the KESPS team are trained specifically to provide Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) interventions to other first responders during and after a critical incident.