Crisis Intervention and Counseling: A Case Study

Critical Incident The critical incident I will be discussing is a house fire that occurred recently in my neighborhood. The owner of the home Samantha was sleeping downstairs on the couch and was able to get out of the fire with minor injuries. Unfortunately, the Samantha’s boyfriend was sleeping upstairs and died in the fire. This tragic event not only took Samantha’s home

Integrated approach to counseling is when you combined theories to cover the clients’ feelings, cognitive patterns, and behavior (Corey, Theory and Practice of Counseling and Pschotherapy 8e, 2009). Each theory focuses one of these key components of a client but in counseling you need to focus on each of these to fully help a client. The key to integrative counseling is to have multiple theories function in harmony (Corey, Theory and Practice of Counseling and Pschotherapy 8e, 2009).

Chapter 1 discussed the concepts, theories, strategies, and skills needed for crisis intervention. It was interesting to read about how government agencies like FEMA and the Red Cross have been around for years; however they really do not focus on intervention from a mental health perspective. The chapter briefly touched on the Cocoanut Grove fire. After research I learned that it is the deadliest known night club fire in the world, killing 492 people, and sending 166 to hospitals. I can understand how it is the benchmark for crisis intervention. How mental health was viewed before the Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963 is unbearable. It altered the delivery of mental health services and made the industry what it is today. One statement

The importance of focusing on crisis intervention training will help to not only better understand the concept, but also to understand police crisis intervention teams. Crisis intervention training has become such an important way for police department to help their communities and especially protected groups such as the mentally ill.

In the 1940s, Gerald Caplan and Eric Lindemann, established the first ABC Model of Crisis Intervention... For this purpose, the crisis intervention method, is conducted as ephemeral, mental health interview with clients, whose functioning level has declined, as a result of a major life influential event. The ABC model is a problem-solving methodology, that is very effective if applied within four to six weeks of the stressor. The primary purpose of this approach is recognizing the cognizance of the client, as they correlate to the precipitating event, and then, help them to reduce irrepressible emotions (Kanel, 2015).

Crisis workers take on many different roles on a daily basis. Crisis workers also come in many different career fields; they are law enforcement officers, therapists, doctors, hospital staff, and many other careers. The responsibility of each individual is broken down into several additional roles. Similar to law enforcement, a crisis worker’s job is always to protect and serve the public.

To be honest, I have had no formal training in counseling. In fact, because of an unproductive experience in a psychology class in college, I have not been looking forward to attending class. I was content with just using common sense, and personal experiences to assist parishioners in coping with specific situations affecting their lives. I knew God had prepared me for my job as pastor, but when I read Webb’s book, “Crisis Counseling in the Congregation”, I realized that this book would prove useful in facilitating me in becoming a better counselor. When I was assigned to Rivers Chapel as a pastor, I used strategies I had learned, in the classroom, and on my previous jobs in counseling, which were common sense and life experiences. But now, after reading “Crisis Counseling in the Congregation”, I can perceive where common sense and personal experience would have been more productive if I had had a better understanding of the techniques Webb introduced in his basis toolbox. After reading Webb’s book, I know I can be a better counselor for my parishioners, their families, and my own family.

The Tom Green County Crisis Intervention Unit (CIU) was formed in 1999 as an adjunct of the Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff Stewart Dickson hired Rita Guthrie as the coordinator and she has remained in that position since that time. Ms. Guthrie has a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Counseling. Before heading the CIU, she was an advocate for victims at several local agencies including the New Direction Batterers Intervention and Prevention Program and the San Angelo Family Shelter. Her passion for victims of violence and others in crisis led to her selection as the CIU coordinator.

The advocacy service selected for this assignment was REAL Crisis Intervention. During my interview with Real Crisis Intervention I spoke to Jess at the office in Greenville NC and Nadine at the office in Washing NC. The program was founded in the 1970’s and was been around ever since serving individuals in the community with crisis; the most common, victim’s of sexual assault.

The objective of this assignment is to conduct an interview with someone who currently works in the crisis intervention, in order gain a perspective of the work or service, what it entails and how to be successful in providing what is needed to those in crisis.

Individuals experience a crisis when a situation or event occurs and their former coping skills and resources become depleted (James & Gilliland, 2017). Crisis models were created to assist counselors build a foundation of interventions strategies and methodologies for individuals who are experiencing a crisis (James & Gilliland, 2017). The three crisis intervention models discussed in this paper are the contextual ecological model, psychological first aid model, and equilibrium model. This paper will explain the importance and value of each crisis model and how they are used in counseling an individual who is experiencing a crisis.

When someone asked me what I thought a crisis was, the first examples that came to my mind was Hurricane Katrina, September 11, 2001. Once I began to think more of what the definition of a crisis would be, I know that it is the reaction of how someone reacts to a crisis event. Other examples may be suicide, homicide, domestic violence, and different traumas that one experiences. Once we began our discussions in class, I realized that a crisis and how one deals with a crisis, whether it is a natural, manmade or personal, effects each person differently. How that person handles the crisis, may have short term or long term effects that may lead to a mental illness. That is one of the points that I found very interesting, among other information we learned in class, along with the various speakers that we had.

In psychology, crisis intervention models are designed to help mental health professionals in dealing with a variety of situations. This is because the conditions surrounding patients, their friends or family have become severe enough that some kind of intercession is necessary. In the case of drug abuse, these tools are utilized to address the underlying problems and introduce possible solutions. To fully understand the best approach requires comparing crisis intervention techniques. This will be accomplished by: examining two different crisis intervention models and psychological first aid strategies. Together, these elements will highlight the most effective tactics for reaching out to individuals who are suffering from substance abuse.

In this assignment I shall be defining the topic surrounding crisis throughout the field of mental health. I will be attempting to do this by using a various range of literature and theories of that can help us create a greater understanding and knowledge base of what a crisis is, why it occurs and how we can potentially prevent a crisis from occurring. I shall then be discussing how I would engage those individuals that are in crisis, exploring the engagement process and showing the skills that are necessary to provide support to the person in crisis. I will then be discussing what challenges we meet as both professionals and the individual that is in crisis and what tools and strategies are placed in order to conquer these

What particular aspects of Crisis Intervention did you notice the counsellor utilising in the video?