Crisis Intervention Skills – Why Everyone Needs Them Earlier this month, at the University of Calgary, Canada, 5 horrific and completely unforeseen murders took place. A house party consisting of about 30 university students erupted into chaos when one of the guests grabbed a kitchen knife and began stabbing his fellow students. Each of the 5 victims was stabbed multiple times; three died on the scene and the other 2 died of their wounds after being rushed to the local hospital. The details: Up to this point, no one can say why this student, Matthew de Grood, attacked his fellow students [...]

Critical to preventing workplace violence is spotting it early on, and prior to events actually taking place. HR staff, fellow coworkers, and others in the workplace can do their part in early recognition through understanding, and spotting these 5 warning signs.

Understanding how a crisis intervention model works is important. Recognizing the importance of effectively training the model to motivated and willing participants, is even more critical.

Crisis Intervention Certification- How Does It Help? For someone working in an environment where they are prone to be verbally assaulted, physically assaulted, or are having to deal with challenging behavior on a routine or occasional basis, gaining Crisis Intervention Certification can be a game changer. The training curriculum provides numerous tools, skills, and techniques to effectively and safely de-escalate individuals who have become hostile and/or threatening, all without having to utilize harmful or violent responses that could lead to unintentional harm. During a crisis situation, it is typical to have one or more “responders” present or nearby to deal with [...]

Crisis Intervention Team –Enhancing Team Effectiveness Nearly every crisis situation happens in front of a group of people.  Of course there are the situations that individuals deal with from time to time, though most often situations that happen in the workplace have another staff member nearby, or at least within earshot.  For this reason it is imperative that responders who work together need to enhance, maintain, and improve their “team” approach whenever possible.  After spending over 20 professional years working with crisis in mental health, military combat, law enforcement and LE tactical situations, I have gained a deep understanding of a [...]

Crisis Intervention Techniques – Setting Boundaries Starting my professional career in the mental health industry as a psych-tech when I was 19 years old, I had no real idea of the challenges that I would encounter working with Dually Diagnosed and At-Risk Youth. I had no real understanding of what crisis intervention techniques were. I knew I wanted to help kids get on the right path, and find the hope they needed to move through adversity. What I didn’t know was just how exhausting trying to help them would be. Over 20 years later, I can look back and see how [...]

What is Verbal and Physical Non Violent Crisis Intervention? Commonly known in the crisis intervention training industry is the term “Nonviolent Crisis Intervention” *(trademarked title for a workplace safety training curriculum created by the Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) in the early 1980’s).  The term non violent crisis intervention has evolved from not only a brand name, but a industry term for any such “non violent” crisis intervention training offered by other companies and training organizations. More effective verbal and physical non violent crisis intervention The Crisis Consultant Group, LLC (CCG) is one of those companies. Intimately familiar with and formerly certified [...]

Crisis Intervention Training What exactly is “crisis intervention training” and why has it became “highly recommended” training for those working in mental health and related human service professions? A great question, with a fairly straightforward answer. The term “crisis intervention training” most often represents a training curriculum consisting of both verbal and physical intervention techniques to be utilized by a “responder” (mental health tech, law enforcement officer, correctional officer, group home worker, human services professional, etc.) in efforts to calm, contain, control and/or otherwise de-escalate an individual who is in “crisis,” often demonstrated by an agitated, hostile, or aggressive behaviors. Crisis [...]

Working With At-Risk Youth - More Good Kids Than Bad? When working with At-Risk Youth we must remember: “There Are More Good People Than Bad.” I remember hearing that statement on a show about 9/11. Translated into Crisis Intervention Training during a crisis it is important to remember that the person you are dealing with isn’t likely to be “all bad” or “evil.” They may be so out of control and escalated that they may actually appear to be possessed by the devil, though that is not likely (After working in mental health or a human services profession long enough, you [...]

Single Person Restraint Technique Vs. Two Person (Pro’s and Con’s) We often hear facilities ask us, “Do you teach a single-person restraint technique?” Our answer is, “No.”  The next question is, “Why not?” As this is a question that plagues many employees’ minds, we wanted to take a moment to discuss the reasons for, and against a single-person restraint technique when considering crisis intervention training. Pro’s 1.  Can use when you are working by yourself 2.  Do not have to depend on other staff member’s ability to assist you 3.  If there are more than one individual that needs restraining, less [...]

Standing Restraint vs. Prone Restraint The argument for standing vs. prone restraint when discussing crisis intervention training has been one that has been around for quite some time. There have been many arguments for both, though I want to examine some of them here: Prone Restraint A large percentage of physical interventions end up going to the ground. Skilled fighters will often try to take their opponent to the ground in efforts to contain them and/or restrict their ability to return strikes or blows. Larger opponents can enjoy the benefits of weight dominance and lessen the likelihood that their opponent will [...]

4 Principles For Selecting The Right Crisis Intervention Training Vendor Choosing the right Crisis Intervention Training vendor to provide crisis intervention training, conflict resolution training, or online crisis intervention and prevention training for your employees is critical. To assist you in making the choice, we thought we would share the process we use as a company to arrive at a logical and practical decision. We strive to use these 4 principles when considering taking on new projects, curriculum enhancements, or general choices we have to make regarding the correct path for us to take. As we are entrusted with ensuring the [...]

Crisis Intervention Strategies When you hear the term “crisis intervention strategies,” many ideas and perspectives may come to mind. The focal point for us here at Crisis Consultant Group, LLC when we hear that term is a famous quote by a great warrior and military leader, Sun Tzu. He stated that, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting”. How incredible a concept back in his time, and how true still today. Is it possible to subdue a person in crisis, through verbal and physical means, without actions that would be considered “fighting?" We believe it is. [...]

Therapeutic Crisis Intervention The term “Therapeutic Crisis Intervention” is widely known and associated with the crisis management protocol developed by Cornell University. Yet, for the purposes of this article, we are not referring to this protocol or program, but the actual term itself: therapeutic crisis intervention, and how it impacts crisis situations. Understanding how to have a therapeutic approach and mindset when going into an intervention will most often mean the difference between further escalation or actual de-escalation of the person and situation altogether. Therapeutic Crisis Intervention - Empowerment The term “crisis intervention” often refers to the act of intervening through [...]

Prevent Workplace Violence: 4 Steps Preventing workplace violence in 4 steps can be a daunting task, especially depending on the workplace environment. For example, if you work in the nightclub industry, you are likely faced with a stream of potentially violent individuals emboldened by liquid courage on a nightly basis. We believe that sending your security staff to the latest martial arts or defensive tactics class is focusing energy on the wrong end of the confrontation and is likely to end up causing more harm than good. Not to mention additional liability to your staff and organization. Prevent Workplace Violence – [...]