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One of the most critical components of crisis intervention is first building a rapport with the client. This can be accomplished by maintaining an attitude of cultural competence, open-mindedness, and attentively listening to the concerns of your client. This means that, not only do you have to hear what they are saying, but you must be able to understand their feelings as they pertain to their person situation. Trying to envision yourself in the shoes of someone else is called empathy, and it is a far cry from feelings of pity or sympathy, but even as a counselor that has experience dealing with all walks of life, empathizes with certain individuals can be a challenging task. So here, we will use the example of Bill, an HIV-positive gay male, in a group setting, who has come to his counselor in hopes of disclosing this information to the rest of the group in order to further benefit his own progress in recovery from substance abuse.
It is the responsibility of any group facilitator to maintain privacy while at the same time protecting the safety and best interest of each and every client by following acceptable crisis intervention training best practices. In the case of Bill, it is a tough decision to make because no group facilitator knows how an entire group of people will react to a stigmatized disease such as HIV, and it is often not a pleasant response. On the other hand, Bill’s decision to share this personal information with the group may be the one thing that is holding him back from progressing in his recovery, and his search for peer support may be accepted graciously.
However, it is not the immediate responsibility of the group facilitator to make that decision on behalf of Bill and it would be more suitable if the facilitator could refer Bill to a separate support system to help him make that choice. For example, if Bill agrees to see an individual counselor to discuss this problem, that may be a more suitable environment. Also, there are HIV intervention supports that are better equipped to deal with the emotional, mental, and physical complications of the disease. All of these would be consistent with best practices during a crisis intervention on behalf of a crisis counselor.
References
Kanel, K. (2014). A Guide to Crisis Intervention. Boston: Cengage Learning.
Miller, G. (2012). Fundamentals in Crisis Counseling. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Watson, A., & Fulambarker, A. J. (2012). The crisis intevention team model of police response to mental health crises: A primer for mental health practitioners. Best Practices in Mental Health, 8(2), 71-81.
