Exploring and Navigating Emotional Crisis (Core Competencies: 1.2; 1.4; 1.6; 2.9; 3.3; 3.4; 3.7; 4.5; 4.6; 4.7; 4.15; 4.16; 4.17) Before exploring the topic of crisis and how certified peer specialists can best contribute to crisis supports, it is important to review some of what is considered best practice from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s crisis training and guidance: “Too often, public systems respond as if a mental health crisis and danger to self or others were one and the same. In fact, danger to self or others derives from common legal language defining when involuntary psychiatric hospitalization may occur—at best, this is a blunt measure of an extreme emergency. A narrow focus on dangerousness is not a valid approach to addressing a mental health crisis. To identify crises accurately requires a much more nuanced understanding and a perspective that looks beyond whether an individual is dangerous or immediate psychiatric hospitalization is indicated… Because only a portion of real-life crises may result in serious harm to self or others, a response that is activated only when physical safety becomes an issue is often too little, too late or no help at all in addressing the root of the crisis. And a response that does not meaningfully address the actual issues underlying a crisis may do more harm than good.” The above best practice guidance outlines that understanding crisis only as “danger to self or others” is not just limiting but harmful in practice. What then constitutes a crisis in a more holistic lens?
191
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online