Start 2 Finish

Class Details

Start 2 Finish

Crisis Intervention principles have long taught that mental health counseling and therapy do not belong in the context of field deployments and emergency crisis intervention. For the most part, most crisis intervention in the field is conducted by paraprofessionals, including both disaster emotional care and disaster spiritual care. These are the frontline care providers who also do the initial screening for serious mental health concerns along with screening for survival, safety, and social support needs. Many crisis responders receive hours of excellent training on psychological first aid principles and applications. However, they often are told that assessments and follow-up are necessary yet receive no specific training and equipping on those two topics. Screening, field assessments, and referrals are essential elements of crisis response and responders must learn how to do these effectively. After they provide crisis services, they also must follow - up to be certain that the impacted persons are stabilized and/ or improving.Again, very little is taught about how this follow - up is conducted. This course is designed to equip care providers with specific tools to use while doing the field assessments and then later doing the follow - up.Like flying a plane, both take-off and landing must be accomplished well.

What You'll Learn

• What to do from “START 2 FINISH”
• Continuums for clinical and field “checking” (aka: assessments)
• Linking mental health to disaster/crisis system of care in real time
• Evidence based rapid mental health triage at the point of care
• Real time situational awareness of a tiered system of mental health risk assessment
• Field assessment tools for eight categories:
• 1. Spirituality (creativity, order, connection)
• 2. Emotional/Mental/Physical Health (fitness, wellness, self-esteem, control)
• 3. Relationships (spouse, significant others, family, friends)
• 4. Roles in Life (leader, coach, parishioners, citizen, provider)
• 5. Public Behavior (driving, waiting, dealing with public, patience)
• 6. Work Function (shop, supervisors, goals, promotion, rewards)
• 7. Money & Finances (budget, purchases, credit, bills, savings)
• 8. Substance Use/Abuse (tobacco, alcohol, drugs, sugars, fats)
• Six models for field assessments
• - Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment (PsySTART) Disaster Mental Health Triage
• - Operational Stress First Aid (OSFA) Operational Stress Assessment metrics
• - Golan’s Crisis Intervention Assessments
• Protocols for Follow-up
• Strategic planning for follow-up
• When to make a referral