Application: Responding Organizations
The Stafford Act specifically points to national agencies’ involvement in crisis responding. These agencies include the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army along with others. The National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) is one of the oldest crisis response agencies; it was originally established to aid crime victims. Professionals at responding organizations have a number of intervention models available to them. Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) is a model that has been subject to some criticism because the usefulness of a debriefing or a reliving of a crisis is not always appropriate or helpful. More recently, Psychological First Aid was developed by the National Center for PTSD and the National Child Traumatic Stress Network as an evidence-informed modular approach for intervening with children, adolescents, adults, and families in the immediate aftermath of disaster and terrorism. In this Application Assignment, you explore both responding organizations and the crisis intervention models they employ.
To prepare for this assignment:
- Review Chapters 13 and 17 in your course text, Crisis Intervention Strategies, and focus on which types of agencies or organizations would be helpful during a disaster/crisis.
- Review the article, “Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, as amended, and Related Authorities,” paying particular attention to the sections describing response teams and relief organizations.
- Review the article, “In the Wake of Hurricane Katrina: Delivering Crisis Mental Health Services to Host Communities,” focusing on multicultural lessons learned. Think about how you would address those using various models of crisis management.
- Review the article, “Preparation, Action, Recovery: A Conceptual Framework for Counselor Preparation and Response in Client Crises,” and pay attention to phases of crisis reactions and interventions.
- Review the article, “Toward a Positive Perspective on Violence Preventions in Schools: Building Connections,” and think about which violence-prevention models would work best with children.
- Research crisis management organizations’ crisis-intervention models, such as the American Red Cross’s model, and think about how they compare with each other.
- Review the American Red Cross model and select an additional model with which to compare it in this Assignment.
- Think about the recommendations you might make to counselors about choosing a crisis-intervention model.
The assignment: (3-5 pages)
- Briefly describe the second organization you chose (the organization other than the Red Cross).
- Explain the similarities and differences between the American Red Cross model and the other one you selected in terms of their elements and applications.
- Explain what recommendations you might make to aid counselors in terms of their selection and/or use of the models.
Articles
- Article: FEMA. (2007). Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, as amended, and Related Authorities. Retrieved from http://www.fema.gov/pdf/about/stafford_act.pdf
- Article: Marbley, A. F. (2007). In the wake of Hurricane Katrina: Delivering crisis mental health services to host communities. Multicultural Education, 15(2), 17-23.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.