HOPE CHESTS - Past Meetings
September 7, 1999 Meeting
"Crisis Intervention"
Deborah Duckworth, MSW, BCSW
Supervisor, Department of Psychiatry & Mental Health
- CRISIS:
- when one's usual coping
mechanisms no longer work and one is overwhelmed and
vulnerable;
when there is both danger and opportunity;
when there is a push to resolve the situation and achieve
stability
- HELPER:
- remember whose crisis it
is; "don't catch" the person's anxiety, urgency,
panic
- AVOID:
- don't tell someone not to
feel ot not to think something "You don't really
believe that...You mustn't feel that way"
don't should/shouldn't someone
"You should be glad it was detected early. You
shouldn't give up hope."
don't use guilt
"What would your son/daughter/spouse think if s/he
heard you say that."
- PROCESS:
- Focus on feelings.
Name them, clarify, validate. No feeling is bad
or forbidden.
- Ask for details.
Don't avoid words like cancer, death, bald...
- Listen for what's
bothering the person MOST.
- Check out the
support system/resources. Encoursge use of
suppoert.
- Give additional
resources.
- Ask what usually
helps/has helped in the past.
- Get an action plan
- specific, practical plans for that night,
tomorrow, now.
- SUICIDE:
- Ask directly "Are you
going to kill yourself?"
Ask how, when, where
Give resources: tell family/friend, contact nurse/doctor,
see a social worker, call The Phone (225) 924-3900
A video tape of this presenation is available through The Hope
Chests
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