A Tough Day

Even the most seasoned ...parents, teachers, counselors, teaching assistants, and principals have a day that exceeds their limits. Let's face it, we're only human! In my case, along with many of my colleagues, we deal with an average of 8-15 crises per day. Now, each can last from 5 minutes to 6 hours...really! Our goal is to support children who are unable to succeed in school/class. But that is not as easy as it seems, most times. The truth is that there are many factors that lead to crisis for children and adults. One of the jobs of a professional in the mental health field is to identify, assess, and create an intervention plan for these types of situations.

Identifying:

How do you identify a crisis? Or more specifically, how do you identify a crisis that warrants the attention of mental health professionals and/or the police?

These are the questions that some school and parents face. In the "day-treatment" type of school I service, we face these troubles routinely. How do we handle these times? More on that with "Intervention." But for now it's most important to first become AWARE that a crisis is happening. Then, we can act accordingly. In any crisis, we have to have an understanding of ourselves and what we want to get out of the situation. Mostly, we are aiming for a safe resolution or some type of basic learning from a crisis incident.

Assessment:

Assessing the severity of a crisis situation is critical. It's hard to stress enough that the importance of therapeutic rapport with the acting-out person has a major impact on the resolution of the crisis. This applies even with young, psychotic, or mood disordered kids.

Knowing and connecting (in their "good times") with troubled kids has serious power. It can be the difference between a successful intervention or a physical altercation...

Self injuious behavior is a major factor, especially if patterned, that helps to determine the course of action/intervention. If severe, the child most often requires hospitalization or some type of secure respite. Sometimes this intervention is avoidable if the family is able to respond in a proactive and positive way that supports safety within the home. Cooperative relationships are critical in this case...

More later on crisis intervention...