Effectiveness of critical event debriefings during Operation Iraqi Freedom II.

Team members of a US Army medical combat stress control unit provided critical event debriefings for military personnel who were directly involved in a traumatic event during Operation Iraqi Freedom II. Each person attending the debriefing was then given a short 5-question survey immediately following the session. Out of the 396 participants who completed the survey questionnaire, 273 felt the debriefing given by the team was helpful, 97 had no opinion, and 26 did not feel it was helpful. This particular combat stress control team was located in Taji, Iraq. The data was collected from debriefings conducted from the beginning of March 2004 to mid-January 2005.