Family Based Crisis Intervention Paper

When dealing with suicidal adolescents, the first and foremost step is to encourage prevention. One way this can be done is to encourage help-seeking behavior. “Efforts to promote help seeking are among the panoply of interventions that may diminish risk for suicide ideation, attempts and/or death” (Klimes-Dougan et al., p.83, 2012). Help-seeking is a simple idea but a difficult thing for the individual experiencing suicidal ideation. The reasons making help-seeking behavior difficult are: it requires self-awareness of a problem, a willingness to seek assistance, and social norms that encourage such behavior (Rickwood et al., 2007). Even if an adolescent possess all of these qualities, a host of other issues may prevent them from seeking …show more content…
Perhaps the newest form of treatment is Family Based Crisis Intervention (Ginnis et al., 2015). This combines Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) skill building, safety planning, psychoeducation, therapeutic readiness and treatment planning (Ginnis et al., 2015). This form of therapy includes four steps that will be gone through in the emergency department immediately following the crisis. The first step of the therapy is psychiatric evaluation during which the therapist interviews both the client and their family. The second step is the adolescent and family intervention. During this phase, psychoeducation and cognitive behavioral therapy take place, therapeutic readiness is evaluated, and a safety plan is put into place. The third stage is a family meeting where they develop a joint crisis narrative during which re-assessment and treatment planning takes place. The final stage is disposition. This is where the discussion of what the client needs and where and how they can get that treatment. This new form of therapy is exceptionally unique because previously only the disposition took place when dealing with a suicidal client in an emergency …show more content…
In stage one of the therapy the therapist helps the client to “attain basic capabilities by reducing life-threatening behaviors, therapy-interfering behaviors (noncompliance or nonattendance) and quality-of-life interfering behaviors (homelessness, psychiatric disorders, and by increasing behavioral skills.” (MacPherson et al., p. 63, 2012). The second stage of therapy revolves around the therapist helping the client to “replace quiet desperation with normative emotional experiencing by decreasing posttraumatic stress” (MacPherson et al., p. 65, 2012). The third stage is about regaining normality for the client where the therapist helps them to “achieve ordinary happiness and unhappiness and resolve problems in living by increasing respect for self and achieving individual goals” (MacPherson et al., p. 65, 2012). Finally, the fourth stage, the therapist helps the client to resolve any feelings of incompetency (MacPherson et al., p. 65, 2012). The last form of therapy that this paper will discuss is attachment-based family therapy or