Crisis intervention theory is an approach that explains the effects of crises on people and provides a framework for assisting professionals working with people facing a crisis (Séguin & Chawky, 2017). Crisis intervention theory has been in existence since 1960 as it was identified based on research into community mental health conducted by Caplan. The identification of the crisis intervention theory was also based on the experience of people associated with acute mental health issues. This theory is essential in helping crisis intervention professionals to assist victims of the crisis in going through crisis times. A crisis is considered to be an event that exceeds the abilities and resources for an individual to cope with challenges issues in life. The crisis intervention theory identifies the different situations where a crisis may occur and the intervention mechanisms required to address each of these incidences. Crisis intervention theory identifies the various stages that individuals undergoing crisis management should consider resolving the conflict successfully.
Expanded and Applied Crisis Theory
Expanded Crisis Theory
Expanded crisis intervention theory seeks contributions from different aspects to explain the experience of crisis by an individual and the mechanisms that could be applied to address these challenges. Expanded crisis theory was formed as a result of developing the Lindemann’s views to the field of traumatic events. The basic argument by Caplan is that crisis can be understood only by the understanding crisis as resulting from the experience of life goals that cannot be achieved. Such a crisis cannot be solved through the use of informal customary approaches or informal intervention (James & Gilliland, 2012). The ideas presented in the expanded crisis theory are categorized into psychoanalysis, adaptational, interpersonal, and systems theory. Systems theory considers the connection between an individual and events and the impacts they have on an individual’s life. The expanded crisis theory helps the victim advocates to analyze and trace the events experienced through life situations and the challenges they face as a result of experiencing a crisis. For instance, explaining the interpersonal and interdependence that individual experiences can create an essential source of information applicable by victim advocates to solve the cause of an event. Adaptational theory depicts shows that a personal crisis originates from negative thoughts and destructive defense mechanisms that may end up being detrimental. The victim advocate can address this issue by creating adaptive strategies for such challenging problems.
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Applied Crisis Theory
The applied crisis theory has the impact of viewing each individual or each crisis to be different from the other indicating crisis management should be situational. The used crisis theory is associated with a normal developmental crisis, situational crises, and existential crisis. Developmental crisis considers conflicts that occur in real-life situations as an individual passes real-life stages such as birth and school life. On the other hand, situational events refer to activities that an individual has less control over and cannot forecast the occurrence of such issues (Kanel, 2014). Alternatively, the existential crisis explains the different aspects that an individual experiences as a result of responsibility, independence, and freedom. Understand the context in which an emergency occurs is essential to crisis victim advocates because it creates room for designing situation intervention strategies to address the source of the problem.
The applied crisis theory reflects some crisis I experienced in life. Several events have occurred in my life, and I have come to understand in later days. For example, when I was leaving home for a boarding school, I experienced conflict in accepting that I had to live away from home for a particular period. Though I received the change when it happened in real life, it has always been challenging for me to accept the turn of events. The situational crisis also happened to me in a game when I came across the news that my best friend was hospitalized. I experienced conflict in accepting this message because I had spent the previous day with my friend while in school. The existential crisis happened to me several, especially in circumstances where I could predict that some factors hindered me from experiencing my set objectives. For example, I set a particular target to score in an exam and fail, and it was conflicting for me because I thought I was not going to achieve my long term goals.
References
James, R. K., & Gilliland, B. E. (2012). Crisis intervention strategies. Nelson Education.
Kanel, K. (2014). A guide to crisis intervention. Cengage Learning.
Séguin, M., & Chawky, N. (2017). Crisis Theory and Intervention Strategies as a Way to Mitigate Suicide Risk. In Handbook of Suicidal Behaviour (pp. 467-483). Springer, Singapore.
