NCJ Number
156908
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 62 Issue: 8 Dated: (August 1995) Pages: 30-34
Date Published
1995
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Local police departments and the FBI have been focusing more attention in recent years on training conflict managers and dispute mediators in crisis intervention skills.
Abstract
Attempts to use standard hostage negotiation techniques in situations requiring special intervention modalities -- i.e., suicide, emotionally disturbed persons, husband-wife conflict, armed robberies, kidnapping for ransom, child abuse, and juvenile crises -- may prove ineffective and even deadly. Crisis intervention emphasizes the immediate management, rather than the ultimate resolution, of the crisis. The dual objective of the intervener in a crisis situation is to reduce trauma wherever possible and to help those affected deal with their present problems and learn coping skills to deal with future problems. Basic training for crisis interveners should include the anatomy of a crisis, social theory, maladaptive behavior and profiling, intervention techniques, and analysis of demands. Intermediate training would cover units on terrorism, team interventions, the referral process, intervener survival, and situations related to specific types of distressed persons. In advanced training, the negotiator will learn personal intervention approaches, physical crisis and medicine across the barricade, self-defense, pseudopsychiatric emergencies, and environmental stress. 4 notes