In this assignment I shall be defining the topic surrounding crisis throughout the field of mental health. I will be attempting to do this by using a various range of literature and theories of that can help us create a greater understanding and knowledge base of what a crisis is, why it occurs and how we can potentially prevent a crisis from occurring. I shall then be discussing how I would engage those individuals that are in crisis, exploring the engagement process and showing the skills that are necessary to provide support to the person in crisis. I will then be discussing what challenges we meet as both professionals and the individual that is in crisis and what tools and strategies are placed in order to conquer these challenges. I will then move on to discuss risk management and how this could potentially help the person/client in crisis. Throughout this assignment I shall be using scenarios from my practice setting to use as examples to create a more personal setting of a person in crisis.
To comply with the Nursing & Midwifery Code (NMC, 2008), I shall be changing all names used in order to maintain confidentiality.
What is a crisis?
A psychological crisis refers to an individual's inability to solve a problem. We all exist in a state of emotional equilibrium, a state of balance, or homeostasis (Aguilera,1998). This theory states that a crisis is unique to every individual, although our crisis may seem similar of that of another individual, the way we interpret and deal with our crisis is very much different. Aguilera states that we all at some point in our lives will find an inability that denies us from solving a problem. Aguilera describes crisis as the state of our psychological equilibrium being continuously threatened by stressors. The better that people come through each crisis, the better they will tend to deal with what lies ahead, but this is not to say that all is lost and never to be recovered if a person has had a
Cited: in: J.R. Cutliffe and P. Barker, 2004. The nurses global assessment of risk.