Thanks!
Like many things in my life, I just kind of "happened" into this. the story of how I became a crisis counsellor is posted on the cellar elsewhere. Probably several elsewheres. The short version is that I was working as a computer geek for a company that went out of business. I needed another job REALLY fast and a friend of mine said there was a temp job at the psych hospital. (That was over ten years ago, incidentally.) Since then I've completed a master's in psych and am considering going for the PhD, once I get a couple other things settled.
How I got involved in critical incident stress management is a slightly different tale. I have been hanging out with emergency services people for most of my life. never 'joined up' myself, although i'd several times considered taking EMT class, but never had the time or money. I knew two of the founding members of the Critical Incident Stress Managment team from before the time that the team was started, and they always encouraged me to get involved. Never did. Then I got tricked into it. The team was getting bigger and bigger and they needed someone to act as their secretary/clerk/maid of all work ... I took the (unpaid) position on the condition that my title in the table of organization would be "Administrative Goddess" (which it was). I've been involved ever since. I eventually took the training and got involved more directly, as it was building on the skills I already had (accidentally) acquired in crisis intervention and mental health.
You are correct ... primarily I deal with the responders to disasters, however, because of a mandate from the State of Pennsylvania related to Homeland Security we are expanding our team to provide services to the victims of disasters and their families. Should be interesting.
There is no particular half-life or length of service for emergency services providers, but the concept of burn out is WELL known in any high stress field. Our purpose is to buffer that as best we can, to try to keep people functional longer.