Crisis Intervention

Crises, emergencies and disasters appear to be more common in today’s society and affect more students than ever seen before. “Crises range in scope and intensity from incidents that directly or indirectly affect a single student to ones that impact the entire community. Crises can happen before, during, or after school and on or off school campuses,” (Deshpande, 2007). When such crises occur it is very important to recognize that a fast and well developed response has to take place which make such situations an emergency and/ or disaster which requires immediate intervention.

Whether a crisis from a shooting that inflicted harm or death, an emergency from a teacher dying, or a disaster such as Hurricane Sandy, many people have been impacted and their lives forever changed. When such event occurs tragic events play a very psychological role and require some type of intervention. For certain the mental health impact is great for the community as a whole. Students who are closely involved or not involved in the event, but are a part of the school can suffer and the situation can enormously affect ones’ mental health. The shock and trauma of the event can impact far beyond the students but also the teachers, staff, faculty, first responders and possibly the world for a lifetime.

Much intervention is needed to de-escalate these situations and provide psychological support to return an individual back to pre-crisis state of mind. The National Institute of Mental Health (2002) defines psychological first aid as establishing safety of a client, reducing stress–related symptoms, providing rest, and physical recuperation, and linking the individual to critical resources and social support systems.

Individual roles are given to responders in order manage a crisis. Plans are constantly reviewed and new roles are developed based on the ongoing changes that occur in society. Continued research, changing vulnerabilities, and untreated mental health make it imperative to...