Crisis Intervention - Crisis Cases and the Crisis Intervention Team

To better understand crisis intervention and the case management afterward, we need to better understand what crisis interventionists do versus what long-term therapists do. There are different principles between the two modes, the objectives of each are different, client functioning is different, and assessment procedures differ. Typical models for long-term therapy don't look different from a crisis intervention model at first glance. What is different is that in long-term therapy the process of defining client problems, identifying their alternatives, and supporting them with personal planning are much broader in scope. They are more methodological and they rely on continuous feedback loops in order for you to check the effectiveness of the intervention. A typical counseling session with a long-term client is, (a) where we review their progress since their previous session, (b) collaboratively refine the plan of action needed, (c) process the session completed and define the client’s feelings about it, and (d) propose a new homework assignment to be tried out before the next meeting.

Crisis intervention models are such that we need to focus on immediate stabilization of the person in crisis, attempt to return them to equilibrium, and attempt to improve their mobility such they are increasingly autonomous. We do not have the luxury of extended time dimensions or problem scopes. In crisis intervention, exploring problems, identifying alternatives, planning, and committing to a plan all happen in a short period of time and are very focused. In long-term care we can spend weeks involved ion these activities and in crisis care we may spend an hour or so.

This training is a public safety presentation from The American Public Safety Training Institute located at: www.tapsti.org