WHO ARE WE?

• We are a group of mental health professionals, trained in modern, powerful and efficient approaches for the purpose of prevent or treat psychological trauma.
• Our Mission is to prevent or alleviate human suffering provoked by psychological trauma.
• Two founders of our Institution were honored with international recognitions. Lucina Artigas with the EMDRIA Creative Innovation Award, 2000 and Ignacio Jarero with the Psychotrauma Trajectory Award in 2008.
• Our organization received in 2007 the Francine Shapiro award in Brasilia , Brazil for his scientific contribution to the EMDR..
• Since 1998 our organization has worked in situ with natural or human provoked disasters survivors in México, Central and South America. Today we are one of the world NGO with more experience in this field.
• We do not belong to any political party, religious institution, or non governmental organization.
• We have been given a Letter of Official Recognition of our achievements in benefit of vulnerable population groups by the DIF (Sistema para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia), System for the Integral Development of the Family, a decentralized division of the Social Development Ministry) of Mexico City.
• We are the institution which has been promoting before Mexico’s Legislative Power, the creation of a legal framework which would allow all primary, secondary or tertiary victims of natural disasters or any highly traumatic events, to receive professional psychological help.

WHAT ARE OUR GOALS?

• Prevent Psychological Trauma.
• To achieve a humanitarian, altruistic and non-lucrative task in helping the people who have been affected by highly stressing and traumatic events.
• To help the victims help themselves by recovering their own inner resources when these have been temporarily incapacitated.
• To provide the highest level of academic training, with curricular value, to mental health professionals, emergency personnel and rescue workers, as well as the general public.
• To develop new working protocols according to our culture and idiosyncrasy. Our organization developed the EMDR Integrative Group Treatment Protocol that has been applied successfully since 1998, with natural or human provoked disasters in Mexico, Central America, South America, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, Sumatra, Israel, Palestinian Territories and Uganda.

WHAT PROCEDURES DO WE FOLLOW?

For Early Psychological Intervention.

Critical Incident Stress Management. International Critical Incident Stress Foundation Model (ICISF)

For Psychotherapy Intervention

a) EMDR - Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (Shapiro, 1995)*
b) Psychiatric support in necessary cases.

To Prevent or recuperate from Compassion Fatigue in first responders - mental health professionals.

We use the Green Cross Academy of Traumatology Compassion Fatigue Educator Training.

 

WHAT CAN WE ACHIEVE THROUGH THESE PROCEDURES?

Critical Incident Stress Management is an integrated system of interventions, designed to prevent and mitigate adverse psychological reactions produced by traumatic events.

EMDR is the psychotherapeutic approach we use in cases where people already present symptoms of Acute or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The EMDR modify the mental processing of traumatic memories. As a result the images, thoughts, feelings and sensations associated with those memories are changed. Symptoms are diminished or disappear, and the patient's quality of life is restored.

The Green Cross Academy of Traumatology Compassion Fatigue Educator Training is designed to Prevent or recuperate from Compassion Fatigue

AT WHAT STAGES OF THE CRITICAL INCIDENT DO WE INTERVENE?

• With the Preventive Approach of Critical Incident Stress Management we intervene:

1. Before the disaster, providing academic instruction to emergency personnel, mental health professionals and rescue workers.
2. b) After the disaster, giving on-the-scene support during the 72 hours following the incident, or as soon as it is possible to access the site of the disaster, to primary (people directly exposed to the elements of the disaster) as well as secondary (close family and personal ties to primary victims) and tertiary victims (emergency personnel, rescue workers, mental health professionals and people whose occupation require them to respond to the disaster)

• With the EMDR psychotherapeutic approach we intervene 1 to 12 or more weeks after the disaster. It is in this period that the symptoms of Acute or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) appear, causing an alteration in the psychic state of the victims, with intensity up to three times greater than at the time of the traumatic event itself.
• With the Compassion Fatigue Educator training we intervene before the incident as prevention-psychoeducation measure or before as a means to recover from this syndrome

WHY IS IT NECESSARY TO TREAT TERTIARY VICTIMS AS WELL?

By tertiary victims we refer to people whose occupation requires them to respond to the disaster. Emergency personnel: police, rescue forces, voluntary support groups. Mental health professionals: psychologists, psychotherapists, counselors, doctors, psychiatrists, and social workers who specialize in mental health.

The concept of "Universal Vulnerability", developed by Dr. Mitchell (Compassion Fatigue, 1994) states that there is no training capable of completely eliminating the possibility that a person working with primary victims be affected by Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder (compassion syndrome); since the people who do this kind of work ( whether for a long period of time or only one instance), are vulnerable to the post-traumatic stress of the people they are helping: they are in fact absorbing trauma through the eyes and ears of their patients.

Dr. Mitchell goes on to say that the costs of a person being affected by compassion syndrome are:

1. Financial: When any such person cannot continue to work, he or she will have to be replaced; thus losing all the resources that were invested in his or her training, and having to invest newly on whoever will act as a replacement.
2. Human: When work performance diminishes, mistakes increase. When moral declines, lies, theft and sabotage in organization multiply. As soon as interpersonal relations suffer, the individual’s daily relations, personality and global health deteriorate. Multiple problems derive from this and it is for that reason that we need to aid these professionals who devote and risk their lives for the sake of their communities.

WHO CAN COME TO US FOR HELP AND ADVICE?

• All those institutions or groups are they public or private, who wish to assist people who have been or could be psychologically affected by a highly traumatic event.

WHO HAVE WE PROVIDED WITH OUR SERVICES?

• Acapulco. Hurricane Paulina, October 1997.
• Chiapas. Floods, September 1998.
• Mexico City. Floods, September 1998.
• Tultepec, Edo. de México. Explosions, October 1998.
• Quintana Roo. Hurricane Mitch, October 1998.
• Yucatán. Hurricane Mitch, October 1998.
• Through the embassies in México to the Governments of Guatemala, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Hurricane Mitch, October-November 1998. Giving them information on emotional first aids
• Guatemala, giving "Emotional First Aid" to the Primary Victims of the Hurricane Mitch, October-November, 1998.
• Nicaragua, giving in Managua a Critical Incident Stress Management Workshop, for the National Police, Army, Firemen, Red Cross and others institutions who give attention in disasters. October-November, 1998
• Nicaragua, working in Posoltega with Primary Victims of the Hurricane Mitch. October-November, 1998
• Through the embassie in México to the government of Colombia Giving them information on emotional first aids. Earthquake January, 1999.
• Pereira, Colombia: giving a Critical Incident Stress Management Workshop, for institutions who give attention in disasters.
• Armenia, Colombia: working with Primary Victims of the earthquake of January 1999.
• Puebla, México: working with Primary Victims of the earthquake of Jun 17 1999.
• Nicaragua, giving in Managua a worshop "Advance Tecnics in Creative Art Therapies for Children Survivors of Traumatic Events". August, 1999.
• Turkey. Our English ( Philip Dutton) and Israel (Elan Shapiro) colleagues using our "Group Protocols for Work with Children survivors of Traumatic Events". Earthquake August 17, 1999.
• DIF Mexico City, fire in the "El Molinito", September 23, 1999
• Government of Guanajuato. Explosions in Celaya, September 26, 1999.
• Government of Oaxaca. Earthquake, September 30, 1999.
• Puebla (Tezihutlán) , flooding and avalanche, October 5, 1999.
• Hidalgo (Tulancingo, Acaxochitlán, Cuautepec), flooding , October 5, 1999.
• Government of Veracruz. Flooding October, 1999.
• Government of Tabasco. Flooding October, 1999.
• Ecuador. Threat of eruption of the volcanos Pichincha y Tungurahua. Emotional First Aid in the shelters.
• TAESA Airlines. Air crash November 9, 1999.
• Bosnian refugee. Our America colleagues (Sandra Wilson) using our "Group Protocols for Work with Children survivors of Traumatic Events" with the Bosnian refugee in Germany . November, 1999.
• Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. Workshop for teachers.
• Through the embassie in México to the Government of Venezuela. Giving them information on emotional first aids. Floods and Avila’s Avalanche, December, 1999.
• Venezuela, Caracas, giving a Critical Incident Stress Management Workshops, and Group Protocols for Work with Children Survivors of Traumatic Events, for institutions who give attention in disasters. Floods and Avila’s Avalanche, December, 1999.
• Venezuela, Caracas, working with Primary Victims of the floods and Avila’s Avalanche, December, 1999.
• Costa Rica, San José, interviews with officials of the National Commission of Emergency, of the Presidency of the Republic of Costa Rica and deliver of our material of First Emotional Aids, after the floods in the Limon and Heredia counties. January of the year 2000.
• Acapulco, Guerrero. Giving Critical Incident Stress Debriefing / ICISF Model to fire – rescue personnel and Red Cross volunteers. Fire of the Calinda Beach Hotel, January, 2001.
• El Salvador, San Salvador. Giving courses (at no cost) about Mental Health After Disasters, Psychotraumatology, Group Treatment Protocols for Children and Adults, CISD/ICISF model for fire workers and EMDR for one on one interventions.
• El Salvador, San Salvador As the Coordinator of EMDR – HAP El Salvador Response, we also prepared the scenario for the EMDR Courses Levels I and II and follow up after each one. Earthquakes January and February, 2001.
• United States of America. Giving Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) information in Spanish through the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist attacks.
• Dominican Republic. Through the Embassy in México. Giving them information on emotional first aids for the families of the persons who died in the New York air accident, November 12, 2001.
  
• DIF Ecatepec Giving Critical Incident Stress Management and Clinical attention to the survivors of the May 6, 2002 tragedy.
  
• DIF Colima State. Giving them psycho-educational information (brochures) on emotional first aids after the January, 2003 earthquake.
  
• Red Cross. Lerma Delegation, México. Giving Critical Incident Stress Management and Clinical attention to the Red Cross Team and survivors of the February, 2003 tragedy.
  
• Rescue and medical urgencies squadron (E.R.U.M.). Mexico City. Psycho-educational Program to a pilot group. March - July, 2003.
  
• Red Cross. Querétaro Delegation. Giving psycho-educational information about burnout and compassion fatigue.
  
• Argentina, Sta. Fe Province. Trough our liaison giving them psycho-educational information (brochures) on emotional first aids for primary, secondary and tertiary (helpers) victims. Flooding April, 2003.
  
• Argentina, Santa Fe Province. Field Work In coordination with the Humanitarian division of EMDRIA Latin-America. Flooding April, 2003.
  
• Mexico City. Mental Health Program for the children in the street with the Mexico City Government.
  
• Mexicana de Aviación (star alliance member). Our Association is the official provider of CISM services
  
• Piedras Negras, Mexico. Giving Critical Incident Stress Management and Clinical attention to the survivors. Flooding April 4, 2004, flooding.
• Mexican National Commission for the Human Rights. Program for mental health humanitarian assistance in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Jun, 2004.
• Peru. Lima. EMDR –Humanitarian Assistance Program Training. November, 2004.
• Asian countries affected by the December 26, 2004 Tsunami through the EMDR Institute Humanitarian Assistance Program with the EMDR Integrative Group Treatment Protocol developed by our Association.
• Guatemala. Giving Early Psychological Intervention for Hurricane Stan survivors. October, 2005.
• Chiapas, México. Giving Early Psychological Intervention for Hurricane Stan survivors. October, 2005.
• Coahuila, México. Giving a Mental Health Assistance Program to relatives and helpers of the 65 miner’s death in Pasta de Conchos mine. February, 2006.
• Mexico City. Agreement of Collaboration with the general attorney's office of justice in order to give EMDR treatment to the victims of crime. May, 2006
• México. With our Humanitarian Assistance Program Helping the Helpers, giving a 100% scholarship for the Compassion Fatigue Educator Training to the professionals who work in the Telethon's Children Recuperation Center: Estate of Mexico. Initiate February, 2007.
• Madrid, Spain. With our Humanitarian Assistance Program Healing Wounds of the Terrorism Victims: 11M. Giving EMDR treatment with our EMDR-Integrative Group Treatment Protocol to those survivors who will be witness in the trial against the perpetrators of the March, 2004 terrorist attack. Initiate February, 2007.
• Supreme Court of Justice, Tabasco State, Mexico. Giving the Compassion Fatigue Educators Training. Jun, 2007.
• Peru. Giving Early Psychological Intervention for earthquake survivors in collaboration with EMDR Peru. August, 2007.
• Nicaragua. Giving Early Psychological Intervention for hurricane Felix survivors in collaboration with Puntos de Encuentro. September, 2007.
• Tabasco. México. Giving EMDR & EMDR Integrative Group Treatment Protocol Training to 30 clinicians who work in direct basis with the survivors of the November 2008 flooding.

WHO GIVES US ACADEMIC SUPPORT?

• EMDR International Association (EMDRIA)
• EMDR Institute.
• Academy of Traumatology.
• International Critical Incident Stress Foundation.
• American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress.
• International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.
  

 

WHERE DO WE HAVE REPRESENTATIVES?

• Mexican Republic.
• United States
• Guatemala.
• El Salvador.
• Panamá.
• Colombia.
• Venezuela.
• Brasil
• Argentina.
• España

WHERE CAN WE BE CONTACTED?

José Ignacio Jarero, Ph.D., Ed.D., C.T.

Founder and President

Lucina Artigas Díaz, M.A., M.T.

Founder and Executive Director

Bulevar de la Luz 777, Col. Jardines del Pedregal, México 01900, D.F., MÉXICO CITY.

Telephone numbers:

(011-52-55) 56.52.44.90 (011-52-55) 51.48.48.59 (011-52-55) 56.52.12.95

Fax: (011 - 52-55) 55689594

Email: nacho@amamecrisis.com.mx

Our Sky Box address in USA is:
Dr. Ignacio Jarero
1900 N.W. 97 Avenue.
Suite 048-1524
Miami, Florida 33172

WHAT DOES OUR LOGO SIGNIFY?

It is a Mayan symbol for physical and emotional healing. It also stands for the friendly hand which provides support; altruism; and strength to act, complete, carry out and materialize.