[Crisis and connection.]

Psychiatric interventions for crisis care lie at the center of the conflict between forced treatment and recovery/wellness systems in mental health services. Though crisis can mean completely different things to people who have the experience, the general public has been taught a unilateral fear response based on media representation. More and more this has led to social control but is erroneously still called treatment This does nothing to help the person and in fact further confuses people already trying to make meaning of their experience. This paper offers a fundamental change in understanding and working with psychiatric crises. Rather than objectifying and naming the crisis experience in relation to the construct of illness, our goal is to develop a relational, contextual way of thinking about crisis response. In that we will explore the concepts of mutuality, proactive crisis planning, the development of negotiated power and meaning, risk and safety, "re-storying" and finally we will offer an argument for creating congruent research strategies that support new ways of thinking about crisis. The authors, who had personal experience with psychiatric crisis and hospitalization, have been involved in the development of peer programs since 1990. Dave Hilton is the director of the Office of Consumer Affairs in New Hampshire and was one of the first OCA directors to access funds for statewide peer support program implementation. Shery Mead is the past director of three peer support agencies including one peer run crisis alternative. She currently consults with peer support and traditional mental health programs nationwide.