Imagine a hospital emergency room on a busy night. One man has fallen and broken his leg. A child has cut herself badly with a piece of glass. Another man is brought in on a stretcher complaining of chest pains and numbness in his left arm. Sometimes, the symptoms of the most critical emergency conditions are not the most obvious. The man with the broken leg might be crying out in pain, or the child might be bleeding the most. Still, a health professional expert in triage would know that the man with chest pains needs to be cared for first. First aid is administered according to each individual’s needs.
Similarly, human services professionals often are given the task of performing “psychological first aid” when interviewing individuals experiencing crises. Individuals might vary from those experiencing a situational crisis (termed individuals in crisis for the purpose of this course) to those experiencing large-scale disasters or events that affect a number of people (termed crisis survivors for the purpose of this course). An individual’s response to any kind of crisis depends on many factors, including but not limited to physical and emotional factors. As a human services professional, you may need to know effective interviewing strategies for individuals experiencing and responding to a variety of types of crises in different ways.
In this Discussion, you will consider the difference between two categories of individuals undergoing crisis situations: individuals in crisis and crisis survivors. You will explore distinct interview approaches for each of these situations and consider why these approaches would be appropriate.
To prepare for this Discussion:
With these thoughts in mind:
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