Crisis Intervention II
Social and Behavioral Sciences / Social Work
Alice Yick Flanagan, Ph.D., M.S.W. E-Mail - Vita
Overview:
This course will provide students a basic understanding of crisis theory and crisis intervention.
Students will become familiar with the assumptions of crisis theory and how it shapes
interventions. Students will also come away from this course with a flavor of the different types
of clients who come into a social worker's practice in crisis. In addition, because the United
States is becoming increasingly multicultural, the class will examine the role of culture, race,
and ethnicity in crisis intervention. Students, for example, will understand the unique stressors
recent immigrants confront and how social workers can implement culturally-sensitive crisis
interventions. In addition, students will become familiar with the role of culture, ethnicity,
and race in issues of depression, schizophrenia, violence, and illness and death and dying.
Learning Objectives:
** Students will be able to articulate the importance of the role of theory in social work
practice; specifically, students will have a firm grasp of crisis theory.
** Students will understand the specific tenets of crisis theory such as assumptions about the
definition, cause, unit of analysis, and focus of intervention for various social problems
client will present.
** Students will come away from the course with an overview of the different types of "crises"
clients present in social work practice. For example, students will obtain preliminary
information of the depressed and suicidal client, schizophrenic client, victim of violence, and
the client experiencing illness and grief and loss.
** Students will understand the importance of the role of culture, race, and ethnicity in crisis
situations. Specifically, students will obtain an overview of how culture, race, and ethnicity
affect symptom expression, help-seeking, and the practitioner-client relationship.
** Students will come away with a better understanding of how immigration may be viewed as a
stressor and potentially a crisis. Acculturative stress, for example, will be examined.
** Students will be able to articulate how culture and ethnicity influence depression,
schizophrenia, violence, and issues of death, dying, and bereavement.
Course Format:
1. Lecture on the web
2. Weekly e-mails to the instructor
** Albert R. Roberts (1996). Crisis management and brief treatment: Theory, technique, and
applications. Nelson Hall Publishers. ISBN #: 0830414290
** Selected articles from Northernlight.com. This is a very unique database where you can search
by topics. It contains articles on web-sites and in academic journals. Articles from academic
journals are in their Special Collections, and the cost is very reasonable ($3.95 for a long
article). Some articles for this course are in Northernlight. Visit
www.northernlight.com. Type in the title of article,
and place quotation marks around the title in the search engine. You will have to establish an
account by using your credit card.
** There are also selected articles from non-profit, commercial, and government web-sites. These
are free.
Supplemental Texts
These books are not required, but you might find them helpful in your social work practice. In
addition, you may find it useful as reference for your final assignment. You will find them in
the bookstore. In addition, you will find supplemental readings. Again, these readings are not
required, but you might find them useful or interesting.
Celia Jaes Falicov (1998). Latino families in therapy: A guide to multicultural practice.
Guilford Press. ISBN #: 1572303646
Zeev Ben-Sira (1997). Immigration, stress, and readjustment. Praeger Publishers. ISBN #: 0275956326
Phillip M. Kleespies (2000). Emergencies in mental health practice. Guilford press. ISBN #: 1572305517
Frank Ochberg (1988). Post-traumatic therapy and victims of violence. Brunner/Mazel. ISBN #: 0876304900
Ihsan Al-Issa and Michel Tousignant (1997). Ethnicity, Immigration, and Psychopathology.
Kluwer Academic Publishers (ISBN #: 0306454793)
Other Requirements for Class
This class will require that you purchase speakers for your computer. Nowadays, you can purchase
speakers for you computer for $10-$15. It is a worthy investment. There will be activities during
the lecture, where I will ask you to link to a web-site that streams audio/visual component via
the Internet. You will be able to hear news excerpts and documentaries. You will also be able to
see pictures as well, but unfortunately, the pictures tend to be blurry and jagged.
When you get onto these web-sites, you can download free versions of Real Player or Quicktime,
which is the software that provides the steaming audio/visual component via the Internet.
Course Requirements and Evaluations
1. Weekly responses to questions/exercises in study guide to be submitted by e-mail --
Please refer to the study guide. There are a total of 6 exercises in the study guide. Each
exercise is due on Friday at 5:00pm (Pacific Standard Time) at the end of the week of that
lecture topic. Responses should be e-mailed to
agyick@canyoncollege.edu and sent in attachment form
in Microsoft Word 7.0. I will do my best to return them via e-mail within a week with my
comments.
2. Annotated bibliography -- This is due Week 5 of the course. Refer to the guidelines at
the end of this syllabus.
3. Final paper -- Refer to the guidelines at the end of the course outline.
Students will be evaluated for grades using the following criteria:
** Annotated Bibliography (15 points).
** Weekly responses to questions/exercises in the study guide (30 points)
** Final paper (55 points)
There are a total of 100 points for the class. The following points determine the final grade
for the class:
Office hours will be on Wednesdays, 3:00-4:00pm. This means that I will be available to respond
to e-mails. In addition, I check my e-mail several times during the day throughout the week.
Therefore, feel free to drop me an e-mail with questions about lectures, questions/exercises in
the study guide, or just to say hello.
If you want to discuss any issues with me on the telephone, please e-mail me so that we can
schedule a mutually convenient time for a telephone meeting.
Course Outline
Week 1: Introductions, What is a Theory, Crisis Intervention
** Roberts, Chapter 2
Week 2: Crisis Theory (Continued)
** Roberts, Chapter 2, 3, and 8
Week 3: Crisis Intervention Model
** Roberts, Chapter 1, 3, and 8 (Review Chapters 3 and 8 again)
Week 4: Multicultural Perspective to Crisis Intervention -- How do you take into
account culture, race, and ethnicity?
** Leon, A. And Dziegielewski, S.F. (1999). The impact of migration: Practice considerations in
working with Hispanic women. Journal of Social Work Practice, 13(1), 19.
Visit: www.northernlight.com and type "migration and
Hispanic women" in the search engine.
Week 5: Working with the Depressed and Suicidal Client
Zayas, L. et. al. (2000). Understanding suicide attempts by Hispanic adolescent females.
Social Work, 45(1), 53. Visit: www.northernlight.com
and type in "suicide and adolescent Hispanic female" in the search engine
Week 6: Working with the Client with Schizophrenia
Finley, L. (1998). The cultural context: Families coping with severe mental illness.
Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 21(3), 230.
Visit www.northernlight.com and type in the title of
the article in the search engine.
Week 7: Working with Victims of Intimate Violence
** Roberts, Chapter 7
Week 8: The Crisis of Illness: Issues of Loss, Death, Dying and Bereavement
** Campbell, T. (1999). AIDS-related death. A review of how bereaved gay men are affected.
Counseling Psychological Quarterly, 12(3), 245-252.
Visit: www.northernlight.com and type in the title of
the article in the search engine.
Annotated Bibliography:
This assignment will prepare you for the final assignment. Please select a minimum of 7-8
citations (books, journal articles, chapters in books, Internet articles) that you will use for
your final paper. An annotated bibliography contains the citation source as well as a short
description of the source. This is due the 5th week of the course.
The following is an example of an annotated citation:
Yick, A. and Agbayani-Siewert, P. (1997). Perceptions of domestic violence in a Chinese American
community. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 12(6), 832-846.
This article describes findings of a telephone research study examining 31 Chinese American males
and females' definitions, contextual justifications, and beliefs about the causes of domestic
violence. The authors explained their findings using cultural explanations and how these findings
shaped directions for future research and social work practice.
Please be sure to proofread your final paper before you e-mail them to me. Check for any
grammatical and spelling errors. You might have a friend or family member read your paper to
make sure that concepts are clear and succinct and that you are conveying what you want to.
Be sure that you e-mail the attachment in Microsoft Word 7.0. Please do not send cut and pastes
because I will be inserting comments in the text of your attachments, and this is not possible
if you send me a cut and paste in the body of your e-mail.
If for whatever reason, you have difficulty in meeting the deadline of the final, you must notify
me two weeks in advance, and we can make some alternative arrangement. In the event of
emergencies, please notify me as soon as possible.
**All final assignments are due on the Friday of the 9th week by 5pm (Pacific Standard
Time)**
Final Assignment
Choose a client from your practice who has come (came) in because of a crisis. Please follow the
outline below for your paper. The paper should be double-spaced and 12-15 pages with references.
You must use APA format.
Write a short profile and description of your client (i.e., gender, age, ethnicity, marital
status, etc.). Remember, do not use real names.
Description of client's presenting problem. Be sure to describe the crisis event, and
classify the type of crisis event (i.e., developmental or situational or traumatic). Explain why
this situation is considered a crisis.
Map out the client's crisis event, using the major assumptions of crisis theory.
Discuss how culture, race, and ethnicity play a role in the help-seeking process and/or
symptom expression.
Provide an overview of the social problem that may be helpful to know in planning the
assessment and intervention. In other words, what are some general facts I should know about the
social problem that is presented? For example, if this is a child abuse case, you might provide
a summary of the scope, indicators, and consequences to the victim and family.
Describe your assessment phase with the client.
Describe the types of interventions you employed with the client (and if applicable,
family). Did you have to take into account culture, race, and ethnicity? How so?
