Crisis Intervention Strategies

There are effective crisis intervention strategies used for each of the three degrees of suicidal client.

1) Effective crisis intervention strategies used for low-risk suicidal clients include; educational interventions, including bibliotherapy and reel therapy that pertains to people who have dealt with and overcome suicidality, reframing the situation, an informal no-suicide contract, and the use of empowering supportive comments (Kanel, 2014).

2) Effective crisis intervention strategies used for middle-risk suicidal clients include; no-suicide contract, suicide watch which could include family members when available, daily visits or phone calls, and only as a last resort, hospitalization (Kanel, 2014).

3) Effective crisis intervention strategies

Also by including the clients family in the process it helps the client feel like they actually do have a support network, i.e. they feel less alone. The hospitalization of high-risk suicidal clients works to incapacitate the suicidal individual and in conjunction with medication, and intense inpatient therapy helps them to regain functionality. “Suicide is usually preceded by a warning. Almost always, [But not always.] persons considering it show symptoms of or provide clues to their intent” (Kanel, 2014, p. 84). Therefore, reading between the lines, or looking for the typical signs of suicidality should always be performed by the HSP. In addition, during the initial interview and during subsequent sessions the HSP should perform suicide assessments.

I am not sure how comfortable I would be in asking the questions necessary to provide the proper interventions, but I can imagine that the asking part would not be a big issue. The part that I could see being an issue for me would be reporting someone who has suicidal inclination or thoughts. I personally do not believe that suicide is always a bad thing in every situation, and I strongly believe that it is an individual’s liberty to choose to live or not, not the decision of the law or a therapist. To quote one of the few rouges in this

Is he a therapist or a custodian? Is he a ‘doctor,’ or is he a ‘warden’ of an institution which, although it is called ‘hospital,’ functions as a prison, inasmuch as patients cannot leave it at will? Thomas S. Szasz (as cited in Oliver, 2006, para. 23).

Three things a crisis worker should explore with a client (or her/his family) who is suspected of being homicidal would be what the client has said or done, and who the victim may be. Another thing a crisis worker should explore is the client’s history of violence. I would be completely comfortable with this, as I do not believe that an individual has the right to cause harm to others. Therefor I would not hesitate to contact the perspective victim, and the police.

My biggest “fear” when dealing with a person how is presenting a homicidal tendencies would be that they may leave our session and cause harm to someone. I would feel so bad if I had suspected it, not acted, and someone was hurt or killed. I would feel