Crisis Intervention: Life-Threatening Incidents

Crisis Intervention:
Crisis situations are usually sudden, unexpected, life-threatening time-restricted incidents that may overpower a person’s ability to react adaptively. During these critical incidents, the extreme events may contribute to individual crises, traumatic stress, and even Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Generally, a crisis can be described as an incident that occurs when people are confronted with issues or problems that cannot be solved. The irresolvable incidents contribute to an increase in anxiety, tension, inability to operate for extended periods, and a successive state of emotional unrest. In the past few years, there have been various major events that have impacted the development and growth of crisis intervention. Some of these major events have occurred in the past 30 years and contributed to the evolution of crisis intervention.
Definition of a Crisis:
As previously mentioned, a crisis can be described as an incident that occurs when people are confronted with problems or situations that cannot be solved. These problems or situation are usually accompanied by emotional unrest, anxiety, tension, and seeming inability to function effectively (Dass-Brailsford, 2007, p.94). In other cases, a crisis is defined as an incident or event considered as unbearably difficult that is beyond a person’s available resources and coping techniques. This period is characterized by a period of psychological disequilibrium, which cannot be resolved using common coping mechanisms.
Generally, crisis events have various characteristics including perception of the event precipitating the incident as threatening, seeming difficulty to change and lessen the effect of stressful conditions, and increased tension, fear and...

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...ing with mental health issues during a crisis (Castellano & Plionis, 2006, p.329).
The second stage is the stabilization phase whose main objective is to provide comfort and peer support and accelerate the recovery and restoration process. Stabilization phase is characterized by provision of medical support and information and education. The first responders provide adequate information and education to the public on how to respond to the various dynamics associated with the crisis. At the same time, these professionals work in collaboration with medical personnel to provide treatment to victims in need of treatment. A suitable example of this phase during the 9/11 was when the New Jersey State Police conducted routine medical checkups on victims and first responders, ongoing spiritual leadership, and placed televisions in tents for acquisition of information.