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Chapter 9. Crisis Theory and Intervention
CHAPTER REVIEW
Helpers are increasingly engaged in crisis intervention and disaster relief. Chapter 9 presents an
overview of basic crisis and disaster theory. It discusses the application of helping relationship
skills and strategies of the human relations counseling model to this particular type of helping.
Crisis intervention is differentiated from trauma and disaster intervention in that the latter is
more likely to require coordinated team efforts to deliver services to larger groups of sufferers.
and disaster response networks are described. The Inter-Agency Standing Committee Guidelines
on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings are briefly discussed.
Available support networks are considered critical components of crisis intervention and disaster
relief. This review of crisis and disaster theory/intervention indicates that short-term
interventions can be effective.
MAJOR TEACHING OBJECTIVES
1. To introduce students to crisis and disaster theory, as well as different forms of crisis
intervention, prevention, and disaster relief.
1. Invite speakers from college counseling centers, from your community’s 24 hour crisis
intervention program, from the local Red Cross, or from the domestic abuse shelter in your
2. Ask students to imagine they are refugees forced to flee their country. They have one hour to
decide what to bring. What and who would they be leaving behind? Ask them to write down
3. Discuss the issue of secondary trauma for helpers. How might a firefighter, therapist, or
4. How might the therapy relationship be affected by the duty of the therapist to report child
abuse? What are ways to ensure that clients will not be surprised by this requirement?
2
5. Ask students individually or in small groups to design crisis prevention programs for at least
6. Ask students to find out whether local school systems have set up disaster response teams.
7. How can communities respond supportively to disasters? Consider recent disasters such as
8. Has there been a disaster in your community in the last three years? Discuss with students
9. Review with students the importance of doing an accurate risk assessment if someone is
suicidal or dangerous to others. Present key questions that are important in assessing
COMMENTS ON EXERCISES IN THE BOOK
Exercises in this chapter ask students to reflect on personal experiences of loss, to categorize
crisis experiences, and to role-play a variety of crisis situations. Myths that blame the victim are
INTERNET ACTIVITIES
1. Ask students to review newspaper and news magazine articles (that can be accessed from the
2. Ask students to find web sites that are helpful in understanding crisis prevention and
intervention, as well as disaster relief programs. Consider:
3. Researchers are finding that trauma may have positive influences on some individuals. Have
students search the term “posttraumatic growth” on the Internet to learn what factors seem to
4. The American Psychological Association has articles, fact sheets, and links on its web site
about building resilience and managing stress emanating from disasters and terrorism. See
5. The United States Department of Veteran Affairs has articles, fact sheets, and links about
6. The United States Department of Health and Human Services-Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration has fact sheets, brochures, and booklets on its web site about
7. Dr. Kenneth S. Pope has developed an excellent web site, http://kspope.com/, entitled
Therapy, Ethics, Malpractice, Forensics, Critical Thinking (and a few other topics).
BOOKS AND FILMS THAT MIGHT BE USEFUL FOR THIS CHAPTER
1. The book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American
Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux,
3. Have students watch one of the following movies and apply what they have learned about the
impact of trauma: 12 Years a Slave, Blue Jasmine, The Impossible, Hotel Rwanda, Munich,
4. The videotape series Vicarious Traumatization I: The Cost of Empathy (46 min.) and
Vicarious Traumatization II: Transforming the Pain (40 min.) (Cavalcade Productions, Inc.,
5. The CD-ROM and Workbook for Crisis Intervention by Rick A. Myer and Richard K. James
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. Crisis intervention includes all of the following except:
2. Trauma or disaster intervention differs from crisis intervention in that:
3. Common reactions to crisis include:
4. Dispositional crises:
5. Acute and post-traumatic stress disorders:
6. A person in crisis:
7. Strategies most helpful for crisis intervention are:
8. Lindemann studied survivors of:
9. One’s personal reaction to a crisis can be based on all of the following except:
10. Unresolved bereavement:
11. Brief therapy:
12. Hot line workers:
13. Disaster Response Networks do all of the following except:
14. To avoid fostering dependence, helpers should:
ESSAY QUESTIONS
2. How does the post-crisis environment differ for a disaster victim, as opposed to a victim of
an individual crisis? What impact might this difference have on emotional recovery?
3. According to Lindemann, how is grieving an important part of recovery from a crisis or
4. How might cognitive-behavioral and phenomenological approaches be used with someone in
6. What are the advantages of using outreach workers with crisis or disaster victims? (pages
8. Give two examples of helper questions that would help the crisis or disaster survivor
9. Give examples of your own or other family members’ reactions to a recent traumatic event
such as Hurricane Sandy, 9/11, Boston Marathon bombing or school shootings. Apply what
11. Give an example of a prevention program at your college or in your community. How
12. How can constructive confrontation be useful with helpees in a crisis or disaster situation?
