Albuquerque Public Schools
APS DSMaRT Team Brings Healing and Hope After School Crises
District Stress Management and Recovery Team supports schools through tragedies and critical incidents.
When tragedy or crisis strikes a school community, Albuquerque Public Schools has a specialized team ready to step in and help.
The District Stress Management and Recovery Team, known as DSMaRT, is made up of 47 volunteers who serve as school counselors, nurses and social workers in their day-to-day roles. But when a school experiences a critical incident, they set aside their own busy schedules to provide recovery support where it’s needed most.
“DSMaRT has been around for over two decades,” said District Crisis Resource Counselor Jen Hart, who leads the team. “We were formerly known as the APS District Crisis Team, but we were re-branded a number of years ago as the APS District Stress Management and Recovery Team (DSMaRT), which aligns with our evidence-based model for school crisis recovery.”
That model — Critical Incident Stress Management, also known as CISM Group Crisis Intervention — is designed to help schools regain stability and begin healing after a tragedy.
“School crisis recovery efforts are imperative when a school community has been disrupted by the stress of a critical incident or tragedy,” Hart explained. “When the school site needs more support, they reach out for DSMaRT's assistance.”
The team responds to about 40 incidents annually across APS, charter schools and other area schools.
“DSMaRT responds to any critical incident that impacts the school community, big or small,” Hart said. “It really can be any situation that sends out a ripple effect through the school community that upsets their normal routines. This can be a situation involving a death of a staff member or student, a school situation that ends up in the news. The possibilities are endless because schools face many different challenges.”
During a response, DSMaRT provides group debriefings, encourages student discussions and shares resources and messaging to help staff, students and families. The goal is to help schools unite, support one another, and start healing.
Hart said these volunteers bring passion and compassion to a role that goes far beyond their regular duties.
“They are drawn to this work, which is very different from their normal roles in their schools, because they are true helper people — and secret super heroes, too,” she added. “They choose to go above and beyond to help across our district and neighboring charter schools.”
Members train extensively in Critical Incident Stress Management Group Crisis Intervention, Psychological First Aid for Schools (PFA-S), FEMA's Incident Command System (ICS), and other recovery-based programs. Last spring, they completed Project Heart Start, learning four life-saving skills: hands-only CPR, AED use, recognizing heart attack warning signs and helping a choking victim.
With nearly 40 responses each year, the team is well-prepared, and members consistently strengthen and refine their skills.
Hart calls it an honor to lead the team.
“They are HUMBLE and would not want me describing them as ‘super heroes,’ but that is their hidden super power, and I am humbled by the privilege of being able to lead our amazing APS DSMaRT.”