Effective crisis intervention

Crisis intervention techniques in a community-based setting, including factors of immediacy of response, location, prior identification and flexibility of service, are examined. Using a community-based program which has received and dealt with 231 crisis situations over a 2-year period as a model, this study shows crisis intervention techniques to be viable and valuable in the identification of problems in the family and individual. Families which request service due to a crisis must be dealt with differently from those who seek service through traditional channels. Preventive intervention is employed to reduce the onset of more serious personality disturbance and family decomposition. Using Caplan's phases of crisis as a guide, most families dealt with in the model program showed signs of reduced conflict and a greater willingness to seek more traditional types of services.