ABSTRACT
This chapter provides arguments that Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Program is by far worth the effort due to strategic and also economic benefits. Costs and benefits of CISM occur on all few levels and depend on their interaction. Costs and benefits were estimated as accurately as necessary for a general program profitability analysis. CISM also has a direct organizational impact; in the feasibility study, for example, benefits with respect to communication culture were reported by air traffic controller (ATCO) skills who never ever had a CISM consultation. The overall benefit of CISM for the organization and the personal benefits for the peers and ATCOs in the feasibility study were estimated extremely high, even by those ATCOs who after critical incident (CI) did not consult a peer. In an effort to assess and document the business benefits of a CISM program, a EUROCONTROL feasibility study on the applicability of economic evaluation methods to human resource programs was conducted in 2003.
