Pediatric critical care social work: interventions with a special plane crash survivor

This article reviews the areas of social work practice that were necessary in the author's work with the family of the survivor of the Northwest Airlines Flight 255 plane crash in August 1987. Crisis intervention theory and family-centered social work practice are discussed as they relate to this unique situation. The areas of practice are broken into tasks for review and include tasks related to the institution, such as coordination with a variety of medical center departments, and tasks related to the family, such as identification, lodging, and privacy. The effects of the media on the staff and the institution and personal reactions to the involvement also are discussed.