Does level of professional training make a difference in crisis intervention counseling?

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Community Mental Health
• Crisis Intervention

Background:

• Multilevel trained staff are often assumed to be more effective in crisis intervention.
• Client socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds may influence the effectiveness of crisis intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test the hypothesis that crisis intervention effectiveness is related to staff training levels.
• To determine if less educated staff are more effective with diverse populations.

Main Methods:

• The Client-Post Rating Scale (Revised) was used to assess client-perceived worker effectiveness.
• Data was collected from clients served by a multilevel crisis intervention team in a midwestern metropolitan area.

Main Results:

• Staff training level was found to be unrelated to counselor effectiveness.
• Less well-educated staff were observed to work more frequently with less economically advantaged populations.

Conclusions:

• Staff education level does not appear to be a determinant of crisis intervention effectiveness.
• The study highlights the role of less formally educated staff in serving vulnerable populations.