Alison Coke-Weatherly and Richard James
University of Memphis
7516 Parker Circle
Germantown, TN 38138
901-624-9855
901-678-4495
allicoke@msn.com
With recent crises such as the Attack on America,` Columbine and other school shootings and the bombing of the
Oklahoma City Federal Building, much emphasis has been placed on the provision of crisis intervention to traumatized
populations. However, there is the question of where and from whom mental health workers obtain crisis intervention
training. While both profit and nonprofit organizations such as Mitchell & Everly's Critical Incident Stress Debriefing and
the Red Cross provide workshops in training for specific components of crisis intervention, it appears that very few
institutions of higher learning offer didactic instruction in crisis intervention.
The initial focus of this presentation will be on survey research we have conducted on such issues as where, to whom and how crisis intervention courses that are taught in a formal, pedagogical manner, as opposed to learning on-the-job or via workshops and/or books. The second focus of the presentation will be on the "experts-in-residence"; that is, the crisis interventionists in the audience and their experiences in learning crisis intervention and what and how they believe the discipline of crisis intervention should be pedagogically formalized. While this presentation will begin with a discussion of the pedagogic history of crisis Intervention and how it is currently being delivered, the majority of the time will be a highly interactive format, with feedback from the audience directing much of its course. This will provide those In attendance an opportunity to possibly play a role in the future direction of crisis intervention training, which is becoming increasingly more necessary for professionals in various fields. Our notion is that what practitioners have to say is very important in building a crisis intervention pedagogy. To our knowledge, this would be a first in soliciting what the course and content of crisis intervention ought to include by "getting it straight from the horse's mouth". It Is our intention to take participants' feedback and present it to our educators in the human service field.
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