Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention Advance Access originally published online on March 30, 2006
Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 2006 6(2):173; doi:10.1093/brief-treatment/mhj013
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Book Review |
Practical Concepts and Training Exercises for Crisis Intervention Teams
Retired Associate Professor of Social Work, National Catholic School of Social Services, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC
eplionis{at}aol.com
Dennis Potter, James A. Stevens, and Paul LaBerteaux. Practical Concepts and Training Exercises for Crisis Intervention Teams. Ellicott City, MD: Chevron Publishing Company, 2003. 464 pp. ISBN 1-883581-33-8, $57.00 (paperback, contains disk).
Instructors of Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) and leaders of crisis intervention teams will find this book extremely helpful. The book will provide instructors with an invaluable experiential teaching tool. Team leaders will find it an asset in maintaining team readiness. The book contains over 43 incident scenarios related to schools, communities, fire prevention and control, and law enforcement. Section 5 provides eight group-based exercises and games to improve debriefing skills. The book begins with an overview of Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) in section 1 and provides operational guidelines in section 2. There is a section on continuing education and training. There are 12 appendices that provide the instructor or team leader with practical handouts or forms: a model for debriefing, a sample memorandum of understanding for team membership, a critical incident service request, an intervention reporting form, an incident coordinator's roster, and a debriefing feedback form to name some.
The purpose of the book is to provide exercises that allow practice in four interventions: individual (one-on-one) debriefing, defusing, group debriefing (CISD), and Crisis Management Briefing. With creativity, the authors suggest that the material in the scripts could be used as the basis of practice for any of the other six CISM interventions. Scripting allows for systematic skill training. Scripts contain recognizable themes and reactions within the context of reality-based events.
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