The relationship of interpersonal acting-out to the process of decompensation

Summary This paper grew out of work in a psychiatric crisis clinic. It was noted that in individuals who characteristically use relationships as a defense against anxiety, decompensation may be triggered by a process in which the person who has been used as a protection against a threatening figure appears to become that figure.Decompensation in such cases can be arrested by quick and appropriate crisis intervention which may lead to restoration of the usual defenses or to a temporary resolution and referral for treatment of the characterological problems.     

Family crisis intervention

Family crisis intervention is based on crisis theory and involves the use of individual crisis intervention techniques with one or more family members starting with the person who initiates the request for help. In addition, the relationship between the crises of the individuals involved is formulated and articulated, including the identification of distinct and common hazards and themes. The usual emphasis with children and young adolescents in crisis is on helping their parents to help them. The paper does, however, treat the issue of direct work with children. As in individual crisis intervention, the treatment contact is limited to six weeks, clients are self-selecting, and the goal is the most adaptive resolution of an immediate problem that is possible given the existing inner and outer resources of the family and its members. This implies that the resolution should not impair the functioning or well-being of any individual family member.     

Crisis intervention and social casework: Similarities and differences in problem-solving

Summary The similarities and differences between the traditional psychosocial approach to casework and that of crisis intervention have been discussed with the use of illustrative case material. It is important to recognize that while crisis intervention is justifiably subsumed under the generalist concept of social work theory and practice on the basis of their striking similarities, it is necessary for the sake of professional clarity to differentiate between the two forms of problem-solving treatment methodologies in terms of goals, process, and structure.     

Book reviews

Clinical Social Work Journal -     

Therapist,save my child: A family crisis case

This paper describes five sessions (the total treatment contact) with a mother and her 15-year-old daughter who was suddenly refusing to attend school. They were a very insecure and inhibited mother and daughter in an intensely dependent relationship involving much ambivalence on both sides. Not only was the immediate school problem resolved, but the clients developed some awareness of their own underlying conflicts related to the developmental phase of the family and of how their ways of handling these conflicts affected one another.