Robert Intveld, Director, RDA

RDA was formed in 1996 by Robert Intveld, LCSW, out of a part time private practice providing psychotherapy and EAP services. When the Internet boom started reaching the Mental Health field, Robert saw an opportunity, learned and entered into the web designing arena and offered web development for the mental health community.  As a parallel project, RDA launched EAPage.com which was a free site designed to promote and provide access to EAP resources and providers. Never quitting his day job which was providing EAP services for a major firm in NY, Robert's passion has always been responding to critical incidents. His EAP work has taken him throughout the country responding to large and small events. A strong supporter of the Mitchell Model, Robert began to learn ways in which the Mitchell model had its flaws when applied by the EAP community and in corporate settings. Then 9/11.

 "Due to the proximity of where I worked, one block from the WTC, coupled with my profession and passion for crisis response I was both responder and victim.  The short story is that working on the fuel of my own stress response allowed me to continually provide debriefing services for about 2 months. When the debriefing activity slowed down, I crashed and needed to leave the field."

 Robert's recovery, besides traditional supports, lead him down a path of fully understanding what happens to one during a traumatic incident from the physiological response to the psychological impact. He learned what so many others do- that the enormity and abnormality of the event is what overwhelmed his coping skills. Nonetheless the field needed better preparation and the learning institutions were not providing it.

 I felt it my duty to warn others in this profession of the risks involved when your job is to approach the fallout from traumatic events rather then stay away. I began to challenge the institutions who deemed themselves as experts in training and take it upon myself to provide a training relative to the EAP industry and professional community.

 In 2002, RDA launched the Critical Incident Response Kit. Its design was to improve preparedness and centralize one's resources well before any kind of event occurred. Along with the kit RDA launched its first edition of Workplace Onsite Debriefing Training at www.eapcism.com. This was the first online training available around the world and brought together the Mitchell model paradigm and applied it to the non first-responder population that EAPs so frequently respond to.

In 2003, Robert received a Special Recognition Award from The Employees Assistance Professional Association for his work dedicated to Critical Incident Response and the EAP.

In 2005, Robert worked with US Naval Weapons Station Earl and with soldiers returning from and deploying to Afghanistan. "Nothing like providing training and debriefing services onboard a vessel with the largest missiles  you ever care to see crated in the next area."

In 2007 a second edition of the online training was launched and continues to reach  professionals all over the world seeking training for the particular work they do."Presently the field is better off then they were 10 years ago. More are trained, both man-made and natural disasters are woven into our culture. The challenge is access."

Critical incident response has become big business. Companies and professionals have made it their primary source of revenue. Training has improved as well and professionals are better prepared then before. "At one time there weren't enough responders, plenty of volunteers, but untrained. Now we have many responders, trained in different approaches.  Our task, as we see it, is to get the right person with the right training to the event to help with the impacted population.  This intervention is so time specific that it offers one chance to reach the optimal outcome. Our aim is to help get the right specialist there when that window of opportunity presents itself."