Crisis Intervention - Introduction to Crisis Intervention

There are four different perspectives on CI we will be discussing: 

1. When we have important life goals and these goals are blocked somehow, such that they seem insurmountable to us through normal problem solving, there is a period of disorganization which follows which may include many failed attempts at some solution.
2. A crisis is a crisis because we do not know how to deal with a situation. 
3. A crisis is a personal difficulty that immobilizes us and prevents us them from controlling our lives.
4. A crisis is a state of personal disorganization where we face profound disruption of our life cycles and the methods we normally use to cope with stress. We may experience fear, shock, and/or distress about this profound disruption and not to the disruption itself.

Personal Crisis develops in four stages:

1. a critical situation occurs where we decide whether our normal coping mechanisms will be able to manage the event,

2. we experience increased tension and disorganization surrounding the event and these escalate beyond our coping ability,

3. we experience a demand for additional resources to resolve the event,

4. we may receive, obtain, or be forced to accept a referral to resolve major personality

disorganization.

We believe crisis is our experiencing of an event as a difficulty that exceeds both our current coping mechanisms. If we experience crisis, and we do not obtain relief, that crisis can severly affect our behavior and cognitive functioning.

As a result, this broadcast is a public service of The American Public Safety Training Institute at: www.tapsti.org intended to help those who may either be in crisis mode already or who may know someone who is.