It should be noted from the start that humanitarian crises are never easy; hence, a crisis worker should possess enough skills and strategies that would help him or her cope with the challenges facing the client. In this regard, the crisis worker needs to employ crisis intervention skills, as discussed in the six-step model to help those affected in the case study. In the case study, both customers and employees went through psychological torture because some might never have witnessed an exchange of fire between police officers and gangs. Female employees and customers might have been tortured more by the incident as compared to the male customer. To help the clients better, it would be important for the crisis worker to assess the extent to which clients have been affected before embarking on solving the problem. Assessment is based on the notion that people are different and are affected differently by disastrous events. The skills employed and strategies applied in solving problems affecting the six clients would be aimed at ensuring clients’ safety, eliminating stress, and informing clients about available resources that would help them get rid of Through the skills and strategies, the affected would be assisted to recover from the traumatic conditions that would affect their normal functioning of the brain. The skills applied to solve the psychological problems affecting the clients would be related to psychological first aid. This would mean that the three first skills would be necessary for addressing the issues affecting the six clients. It should also be remembered that the three skills are related to listening, whereby the crisis worker attempts to pay attention to the worries and queries raised by the clients. Through listening, the crisis worker would be in a position to respond accordingly to issues. In the case study selected, it would be prudent for the crisis worker to classify the problem at hand. This would entail comprehending the main issues raised by the clients, meaning that the worker tries to address the issues from the clients’ perspective. Without a clear understanding of the problem, the worker would not be in a position to address the problem. All efforts would then be wasteful since they would not assist the victims in any way. To execute this duty effectively, the worker would employ key listening skills, including compassion, authenticity, and recognition (Breslau, 1990).
Another important skill would be making sure the client is safe. Safety is the main crisis intervention skill that should always be applied in an urgent situation. Psychologists define safety as the process of reducing physical and emotional risks to the client. For instance, the six clients would be taken to a medical expert to examine them in case they might have experienced an internal physical injury. Various tests would be conducted to establish their brain statuses. This is a skill that should be applied in the entire process to minimize dangers and risks. One of the strategies that could be employed to address the problem in the case study would be to allow catharsis. This is because the lives of the clients were in danger and they might not have had any chance to mourn, talk or even cry, given that the majority of them were women. Employing this strategy would help clients air out thoughts and views, which would be an effective way of curing clients therapeutically (Bryant, 2000).
References
Breslau, N. (1990). Stressors: Continuous and discontinuous. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 20(20), 1666-1673.
Bryant, R.A. (2000). Acute Stress Disorder. PTSD Research Quarterly, 11(2), 1-7.