License Mental Health Counseling

September 11, 2018

BRIAN, I am at an IOP intensive out patient facility, called PAXCAMPUS. I am not faced with homicidal ideation, child abuse, elder abuse. But every site has safety plans just in case. This is what I would do in case of tell your supervisor(because I am a student), someone dial 911, etc. get the other clients to safety.

Please include, overdoses, leaving before time, relapsing and hiding it until busted.

https: // www. Paxcampus.com.

Crisis Intervention

To be able to effectively address various crisis situations, my work site has a crisis preparedness program that my colleagues and I must implement for all emergency situations and a crisis plan that is only activated when an issue has the potential to escalate to crisis level (Thompson & Lund, 2017). My work site also has detailed action plans that are basically management checklists for the Crisis Management Team. As a member of this team, I ensure that no important task gets overlooked or forgotten when situations become chaotic. I am also charged with creating timely, consistent, and effective communication methods and having the contact information for each member of the Crisis Management Team because this is also essential for effective crisis management.

When safety protocols are initiated, the responsibilities of key personnel include understanding the various problems and shortcomings that led to the crisis. As a key player, I must be able to think quickly and prioritize the issues by ranking the problems as per the effect so as to know which to be solved immediately. Additionally, I must be able to communicate effectively by contacting the required persons so that they can handle the critical situation as soon as possible and develop alternate plans and strategies that can be used for future crisis situations.

Crisis intervention is not only aimed at reducing the intensity of the victims’ physical, mental, behavioral, and emotional reactions to the crisis, but also returning life to the normal level of functioning before the incident. Types of crisis include the development, situation, and existential crisis. Suicidal ideation, child abuse, elder abuse, and homicidal ideation are some of the instances when crisis intervention is needed. Action plans, crisis teams, effective communication, and updated contact lists are some of the protocols that workplaces put in place in order manage a crisis. Crisis intervention refers to the methods in which individuals offer immediate, but short-term assistance to individuals who may have experienced an event that produces physical, mental, behavioral, and emotional distress at that particular time.

A crisis that I recently experienced at my site dealt with a developmental crisis, which is as a result of a normal life event, such as pregnancy, that causes strain and stress to an individual and should be monitored closely to ensure client regains normal functioning (Kanel, 2014). Another crisis that I’ve assisted with is the situation crisis which refers to an event that is so sudden that it overwhelms normal coping, for example, sexual assault or sudden death. I’ve also assisted with existential crisis which are based on a person’s deep sense personal fulfillment and regret of the belief that life has passed them by.

Ideal crisis intervention criteria should encompass strategies aimed at assisting individuals under rehabilitation to overcome their most disturbing problems. Most important, crisis intervention involves taking measures that offer quick solutions so that affected patients are relieved from trauma as fast as possible. To complete crisis intervention efficiently, I opt for an all-round approach that addresses mental, psychological and social aspects of a patient’s life cycle (Peters et al. 2017). Certainly, trauma is overwhelming to patients and some patients often opt for risky choices of personally dealing with trauma that include suicide, homicide and violence. Apart from endangering their own lives and the lives of other people, if patients manage to successfully employ such options successfully, the reputation of rehabilitation facilities are lowered. This explains why I and my team respond swiftly to behavioral crises.

Should threats of crisis arise at my worksite; the interventions I would perform encompass the following measures. To begin with, educating patients by making them understand that they are capable of overcoming dangerous incidences and resuming a normal life is imperative. Education is facilitated by motivating patients to utilize different methods get over traumatic incidences. Additionally, I assist patients with recognizing and realizing how to manage the overwhelming problems that overcome them and to break from behaviors and decisions that would lead to a repeat of the incidences that lead them trauma.

Furthermore, I normally give patients the opportunity to evaluate themselves and to establish personal abilities that can help them to overcome crises on their own. This way, patients develop the sense of taking responsibility for their own recovery. Again, helping patients to form habits that that facilitate comfortable conformity to normal life is my priority. In this regard, I assist patients to create support systems that help them to desist from making harmful decisions. This allows them to understand and appreciate the significance of freedom from crises since their minds devoid of reckless imaginations. Nevertheless, it is also vital to challenge patients who are being rehabilitated from crisis to develop the ability to confront problems and fear. Finally, encouraging patients to break from excessive use of drugs to escape past problems, and build stronger relationship with counselors and supportive family members and friends is a priority in my therapeutic strategies for crisis intervention.

In the event that a patient becomes suicidal, homicidal or abusive, the most ideal thing to do is to exploit intervention aimed at stopping them from executing such regrettable plans. In case a patient develops suicidal ideation, the most appropriate measure to take is making the patient to understand that there are better alternatives of solving problems than taking their lives. The primary step in this scenario is educating the patient on the value of preserving his or her life. Significantly, identifying the cause of such thoughts and helping the individual to disassociate from the identified precursors to suicidal thoughts (Hutchison et al. 2018).

In the case of child abuse, I make it a priority to identify and prioritize the client’s fears, dangers, and the needs. I help the client select the needs that should be dealt with immediately and those that can be temporarily left for later and throughout, ask the client detailed questions about threats and fears that the perpetrator could have made (Kanel, 2014). I also adequately assess danger in the client’s path and connect the client with the people who can eliminate the dangers or give effective referrals for the client to receive needed services.

When dealing with situations concerning homicide, child abuse, and elderly abuse ideations, it is critical that I make an individual understand that the problems befalling him or her are results of his or her decision. As such, transforming his or her habits is important in combating the problems. In situations like this, I would compel such individuals to take responsibility of their past mistakes and help them to understand the benefits of behavior change. Consequently, they may admit to their erroneous intentions and decide to cease such ideations. Essentially, when patients are therapeutically assisted to embrace behavior change, they realize that the major contributors to addiction to drugs are internal factors, which they have total control over, and not external factors, which they have limited control over. As such, even child abuse and elderly abuse pose additional problems to them rather than offering solutions to their problems.

Furthermore, the safety plans available in our organization in case of crisis arising from harmful ideations are emergency mental health services and monitoring of suicidal and homicidal ideations with the help of mental health counselors. Upon initiation of the aforementioned safety plans, my responsibilities toward facilitating the plans include offering crisis intervention counseling and behavior change monitoring. It is safe to realize that the profession that I have chosen with consist of crisis and conflict on a frequent basis and I will be responsible for the effectiveness and appropriateness of my response. Depending on the circumstances of the crisis, my actions may just one day determine if the life that I save is my own.

References

Hutchison, S. L., Flanagan, J. V., Karpov, I., Elliott, L., Holsinger, B., Edwards, J., & Loveland, D. (2018). Care Management Intervention to Decrease Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorder Readmissions in Medicaid-Enrolled Adults. The journal of behavioral health services & research, 1-11.

Kanel, K. (2014). A guide to crisis intervention. Cengage Learning.

Peters, R. H., Young, M. S., Rojas, E. C., & Gorey, C. M. (2017). Evidence-based treatment and supervision practices for co-occurring mental and substance use disorders in the criminal justice system. The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse, 43(4), 475-488.

Hunt, T., Wilson, C. J., Woodward, A., Caputi, P., & Wilson, I. (2018). Intervention among suicidal men: Future directions for telephone crisis support research. Frontiers in public health, 6, 1.

Kanel, K. (2014). A guide to crisis intervention. Cengage Learning.

Thompson, N., & Lund, D. A. (2017). Loss, grief, and trauma in the workplace. Routledge