Current Charity

The purpose of the Wood County Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) program is to assist Wood County emergency services personnel in processing the events of the unusual and traumatic incidents they are often exposed to in their line of work. The reason for the formation of this program, was to address the important topic of mental wellness among emergency services personnel. The goal of CISM is to provide immediate supports to those serving our communities and to try to fill in some of the much needed care for our front line personnel. In the past, negative stigma surrounding mental health and the misinformed belief that responders had to be able to “just deal with it” following the things they saw at work, led to silent suffering and impeded the quest for mental wellness across organizations. In order to shift this trend in a positive direction, the Wood County CISM was created.

Although challenging statistics to keep, in 2019, there were known to be 202 Police/Corrections officer suicides, 146 Fire/EMS suicides and 6,826 active military/veteran suicides. It is not well identified how many doctors, nurses, social workers, or other service providers struggle as well. While various attempts have been made to address these concerns, more continues to be needed.