Crisis Intervention: Importance, Role and the Seven-Task Hybrid Model

This report throws light on the importance and role of crisis intervention while dealing with mental health issues. It explains the seven-task hybrid model of Myer, James and Moulton and the challenges faced by patients suffering from ill mental health.

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Crisis Intervention
7 task Hybrid Model

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There are several cases of depression, mental trauma and mental illness that are being
witnessed today. Therefore, crisis intervention plays a very significant role in reducing the
impact of them. All of these issues have a compounding impact on an individual’s personal
life (Mirick, Bridger, McCauley & Berkowitz, 2016). This report throws light on the
importance and role of crisis intervention while dealing with mental health issues. In order to
identify the crisis, seven hybrid model of Myer, James and Moulton is explained. The report
also highlights the challenges faced by patients suffering from ill mental health. This model is
acute in helping patients overcome the challenges faced by them and hence it is important to
spread awareness regarding the same. The remedies to overcome these difficulties are
explained below.
In the today’s world where people are suffering from many psychological trauma and
disorders, crisis intervention is a short-term and immediate care mechanism, which aims at
assisting individuals in overcoming this tough phase of life. The aim is to bring equilibrium
in the function of bio psychosocial functions of the body and minimization of long-term
potential psychological trauma. Mental crisis faced by individuals makes it difficult for them
to function and sometimes even perform their routine tasks. Many people often complaint of
not being able to get up from their beds or have any form of social interaction. There can be
several reasons or root causes attached to these diseases. The crisis may arrive post a severe
physical injury, natural disaster, sudden death of loved ones, loss of a job, failed romantic
relationships or excessive pressure at school or workplace which can cause mental trauma
(Henderson, 2016). Some specific emotional crises such as children leaving home, divorce,
school, or family violence also fall under this category. Crisis intervention’s main priority is
to bring stability in the diseased person’s life by providing proper intervention and
counselling.
Sometimes such crisis leave a massive impact for a long period. Mental illnesses like
depression or mental trauma can occur over a long period time by a cumulating impact of
various factors. On the other hand, sometimes these diseases may affect the patient
instantaneously. If the trauma is unexpected, it is normal to receive unexpected reaction from
patients (Giri, 2016). The mental ability of an individual to cope with such diseases plays a
very critical role. Some patients might be mentally strong and hence may be able to take steps
towards improving their situation. These patients have an attitude to fight off the disease. On
the other hand, most people do not have enough mental strength and ability to cope with

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these trauma on their own. Some people can even take severely drastic steps. These cases
lead to stern actions by the individual such as suicide, physical harm or harming another
individual. At times, the trauma occurs in number of settings and a large number of people
get affected along with the patient. In this situation, patients lose their presence of mind and
start acting in an immature or insane way. In order to not let this disease impact others,
counsellors are trained and held responsible to provide the right counselling to the patient as
well as those around him/her. At the time of these crises, the primary concern of the
counsellors is to assess the people with the awareness of resources (Kanel, 2014).
The seven- task hybrid model given by Myer, James, and Moultan describes the crisis
intervention in the life of the individual. The first task in this process is predisposition,
engaging, and initiating contact, which is used by counsellors to show concern for people
suffering from divorce, school pressure, problems at home, and issues associated with
children. The second task studies about the exploration of problem. This process involves
getting a deeper insight about the personal problems faced by people such as negligence of
child, too much reliability on children and so on (France, 2015). The third task explains the
support provided by counsellors. The aim to offer solutions and guiding the patient in order to
overcome this illness. The fourth task is examining alternatives of solutions. This helps in
finding the alternatives and after thorough analysis providing the solution to patients in order
to help them in moving on. Implementing the action plan is the fifth task of hybrid model,
which says about the implementation of corrective action plan. The sixth task aims at
bringing patients at a stage where they can commit to the action plan and demonstrate
determination to fight the disease. Counsellors apply a strength-based approach in the
continuation therapy. The willingness of the client is highly important in order to provide
support (Murphy, Irving, Adams & Waqar, 2015). In the final task, the effectiveness of the
proposed action is monitored promptly. It helps in keeping live communication in order to
identify the challenges and address them before they get worse.
A unique attribute of this model is that counsellors at every stage are different and
play a different role. The first and second counsellors have no direct communication with the
client. They are simply trying to explore the recent problems faced by clients. The third and
fourth counsellors depict the reflection of statement of client and use both verbal and non-
verbal communication with a proper body language. They communicate with clients in order
to understand them better, analyse their problems and motivate them. The fifth counsellor

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focuses on implementing the corrective action plan and hence plays a very crucial role in
regaining the mental health of the client (Kirst et al, 2015). The sixth counsellor works
towards motivating the client to commit towards fighting this battle.
In today’s era of hospitality world, more heat is provided to overcome this mental
sickness but sometimes the increasing range of this illness leads to lack of support on the part
of counsellors. Some scholars suggest that in order to overcome, one has to value self, try to
be in good positive environment, quiet the mind for some time, break the monotony, avoid
the negative vibes around, and focus on improving their mental health. Therefore, crisis
intervention helps in taking out the patients from this mental sickness and provides a positive
assistance to the patients. In many cases, the theory of crisis intervention is associated with
chaos in which resolving the crisis is not done easily in the progressive linear plan. Due to
this, the system model for the better implementation of the procedure considers the measures.
In that case, the challenges faced by the individuals are depicted in this model due to the
severity of the crisis. The detailed interaction with the patient in order to understand the
situation of client is included in the support system, status of psychosocial, alternative
methods, and coping skills. However, along with this, the hybrid model also faces challenges
in implementing these tasks. The first challenge, which the counsellors face, is providing
support system to the patient. The support provided by the counsellor may or may not go in
favour of the patient. The counsellor may at times can misunderstand the problem faced by
the client and provide the inappropriate support, which will lead to an ineffective result.
Sometimes this happens due to the different crisis intervention cases, which are severe in
nature, and finding the solution becomes difficult.
This nature of this task puts the impact on the other three task implementations by the
counsellors. The other measures or tasks face the problem due to wrong decisions taken in the
very first task by the counsellors. Such as, if I as a counsellor fail to detect the problem faced
by the patients or make a wrong judgement then in that case it will definitely lead to
carelessness or negligence on my part. In relation with the above task, finding an appropriate
alternative for the prevention of the suffering of the clients is also a challenge for the
counsellors (Lin, 2017). The different kind of psychosocial traumas need different kind of the
treatment or therapy. In order to bring equilibrium in autonomy we need to monitor the
effectiveness of the alternative implemented. At the time of follow up counsellor has to be
very effective because if in case the monitoring goes wrong, all the efforts made by the

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previous counsellors will go in vain. This will not only affect the counsellors but the tragic
condition of the patient the people associated with him/her. In my opinion, the consequences
of this conduct may cause a huge loss to the patient and instead of coming out of the trauma;
he/she can even get it done worse than before. However, as it is said that if anything has its
negative side than it will have positive side as well. If the counsellors face the difficulties
then there are measures as well to overcome these difficulties (Kohrt et al, 2015).
There can be several difficulties that may be faced at every stage of the hybrid model.
In fact, these difficulties may differ from client to client. Every patient and every problem is
different. To provide a strong support system to patients, counsellors need to understand the
feelings and needs of the customer. Along with being a good listener, they have to be good
speakers and convincers as well. Patients may even show reluctance towards sharing their
feelings. Hence, counsellors must be well equipped with the ability to provide a comforting
environment to the patient. Counsellors also need to demonstrate immense patience and
perseverance while dealing with clients. In addition, to achieve this counsellors have to be
active listeners as well as reflective listeners. Be it in any terms finding the alternative is main
task of every process because next all the steps of the procedure is based on this chosen
alternative by the counsellors by identifying the actual problem of the client (Mirick, Bridger,
McCauley & Berkowitz, 2016). Similarly, in this case, identification and choice of the
alternative need to be made with utmost care as its direct impact will be on the health of the
patient.
It is important to note that an equal effort must be made on the part of both, the
counsellors and clients. In order to achieve this, brainstorming sessions are involved in this
process on a possibility to effectively engage patients in the process. The difficulty of
choosing the action plan and then implementing the plan are a bit similar. If the plan chosen
is correct then its execution is the only other thing which needs to be kept in mind. If the plan
chosen is, best suitable for the particular problem, which we are suffering from then the
counsellor has to ensure a proper execution of the plan. Once the action plan has been
designed and executed, follow up is very important. This helps counsellors assure that the
patient is fit. There are several ways to follow up on the same including calling the patient,
taking a feedback from close ones or personally visiting the patient. This shows the impact of
suggested action plan on the client and the result, which will come out of it (Kayal, 2018).

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To conclude, the number of cases being reported for mental illnesses including
depression and mental trauma are on a rise. Therefore it is the need of the hour to break all
stereotypes and address these issues in order to help several patients cope up with the realities
of their respective lives. The hybrid model depicts can effective way to address the pain of
these patients and help them overcome this challenge in an effective and sustainable manner.
The process includes devising an action plan that would help enhance the mental strength and
ability of the patient suffering from these mental diseases. The aim of this model is to ensure
that not only patients overcome this phase of their life and bring in stability but also enhance
their mental strength, determination and optimism.

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References
France, K. (2015). Crisis intervention: A handbook of immediate person-to-person
help. United States: Charles C Thomas Publisher.
Giri, S., (2016). Crisis Intervention. Retrieved from:
shttps://www.slideshare.net/education4227/crisis-intervention-58319897
Henderson, R., (2016). Crisis Intervention. Retrieved from:
https://patient.info/doctor/crisis-intervention
Kanel, K. (2014). A guide to crisis intervention. United States: Cengage Learning.
Kayal, P. M. (2018). Bearing witness: Gay men's health crisis and the politics of
AIDS. United states: Routledge.
Kirst, M., Francombe, P. K., Narrandes, R., Matheson, F., Young, L., Niedra, K., &
Stergiopoulos, V. (2015). Examining implementation of mobile, police-mental
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Kohrt, B. A., Blasingame, E., Compton, M. T., Dakana, S. F., Dossen, B., Lang, F., &
Cooper, J. (2015). Adapting the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Model of
Polic e–M ental Health Collaboration in a Low-Income, Post-Conflict
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Lin, N. (2017). A Study of Mental Health Crisis of Undergraduates and Construction
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Teaching in Social Work, 36(4), 363-379.

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Mirick, R. G., Bridger, J., McCauley, J., & Berkowitz, L. (2016). Continuing
Education on Suicide Assessment and Crisis Intervention for Social Workers
and Other Mental Health Professionals: A Follow-Up Study. Journal of
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Murphy, S., Irving, C. B., Adams, C. E., & Waqar, M. (2015). Crisis intervention for
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