Basic Concepts in Crisis Theory
Overview of Crisis Intervention & Characteristics of Crisis Events
Crisis is not a mental illness, but without proper crisis intervention techniques, it is a possible outcome.
Crisis can be defined several ways. It is a turning point in a person’s life, a stressful life experience affecting the stability of an individual so that their ability to cope or even function may be seriously compromised or impaired. It is a hazardous situation that is itself, in terms of the person’s perception, a precipitant; dimensions of the event are an integral part of the experience.
Crisis is a temporary state of upset, disequilibrium, accompanied by confusion and disorganization. The disorganization may be integral to reducing problem-solving abilities to a point that traditional management strategies may not be effective.
Conditions for Crisis
There are two conditions for crisis: the perception that the event will lead to considerable upset or disruption, and the person’s inability to resolve the disruption with the available coping methods they can use.
Crises occur episodically during the normal lifespan for individuals, families, groups, communities, and nations. They have different levels of impact.
If a problem continues and cannot be resolved, avoided, or redefined, then a prolonged impact may take place. When homeostasis is disrupted, the crisis event can continue to have an impact well beyond the situation itself. This is when crisis intervention becomes necessary.
Crisis Intervention
There are a number of things that are important to remember in crisis intervention, one of which is timing. Intervention is short-term, time-limited. The target window to begin intervention is 24-72 hours after the event. Crisis lasts between four and eight weeks, and intervention takes approximately six weeks.
The intervener must avoid making patients out of the victim; remember that the individual was a normal functioning person before the event happened. The focus is on helping the individual to regain mastery in their lives and reorganize. The more effective crisis intervention process improves with proximity and immediacy.
The principal goal of crisis intervention is to facilitate the regaining of the level of functioning (as close as possible) that there was before the event, restoring equilibrium. But even with effective intervention, people rarely go back to exactly the way they were before. The event becomes a milestone that defines their lives.
By providing intervention resources, the individual learns new ways of coping, sees themselves differently, and sees new opportunities for the future.
The intervener must evaluate the individual’s mental status, as well as their strengths, assets, and liabilities.
Characteristics of Crisis Events
There are some major characteristics of crisis events. There is a presence of both danger and opportunity. Crisis events bring about complicated symptomology that defy cause and effect descriptions and may not always be logical and cohesive.
Crisis carries seeds of both growth and change. There is an absence of panacea. There is also a necessity of choice; according to Kaplan, crisis is defined as a choice point. Crisis is universal and idiosyncratic: something is going to happen to everyone, and it can be a matter of pure luck.
Crises are time-limited, and involve a precipitating event. They can be situational as well as developmental. There is a cognitive key: perception and expectations. Crisis is a state of disorganization and disequilibrium. Crisis brings about vulnerability and reduced defensiveness, as well as a heightened state of suggestibility. Crisis also involves a breakdown in coping. Crisis is not mental illness, and it should not be confused as such.
This information was taken from lecture notes from J. Steinberg's graduate class in Crisis Intervention (1999), but you can learn more about crisis theory from the National Guideline Clearinghouse.
