Crisis-intervention counseling: An evaluation of long- and short-term effects.

Abstract

Crisis-intervention counseling was implemented with hospitalized patients for whom illness or injury and hospitalization constituted the crisis. Its longterm as well as short-term psychological effects were monitored. When compared with a biographically and psychologically similar sample who were not counseled, counseled patients on discharge from the hospital showed the hypothesized short-term reductions in anxiety and in indirectly expressed anger. Their self-perceptions of helplessness were fewer, whereas their statements of competence increased. On follow-up 12 months later, reductions in their levels of anxiety were found to be even more notable, and more expressions of direct anger were observed. Reductions in depression proved statistically significant only on follow-up. Significant effects for self-perceptions were not apparent on follow-up. Although the findings for short-term effects provided some support for the use of crisis-intervention counseling to achieve immediate goals, the long-term effects suggested that it may have potential for achiev-" ing primary prevention goals.People in crisis are passing through a phase of disturbed psychological equilibrium on the way to a new equilibrium (Caplan, 1955(Caplan, ,1961. This disturbance lasts only for a short period of days or weeks. It usually occurs as a reaction to a change in their world and so requires changes in the assumptions they make about themselves in that world (Kelly, 1955;Parkes, 1971). People in crisis suddenly face different circumstances that demand different coping responses from them. The crisis is, therefore, a time of cognitive disorganization and emotional disturbance, and also a time of increased vulnerability to external influences (Pasewark & Albers, 1972;. For this reason, and because the extent to which crises are effectively resolved seems to be largely a function of the interpersonal sup-This work was supported by a grant from the Commonwealth Department of Health, Australia. We wish to thank Ms. Rosemary Caruana and the part-time members of the research team for their help with data collection and analysis. We also wish to thank the crisis-intervention counselors.

The Effects of Personal Construct Group Therapy on Breast Cancer Survivors.

“…This program has been developed to recognize scorable clauses applicable to each scale and compute a score for each scale and subscale, thereby overcoming problems of interrater reliability (Gottschalk & Bechtel, 1982, 1995, 1998). Evidence of the validity of these scales is plentiful (Gottschalk & Hoigaard-Martin, 1986b; Heszen-Niejodek, Gottschalk, & Januszek, 1999; Viney, Benjamin, & Preston, 1988, 1989; Viney, Clarke, Bunn, & Benjamin, 1985, 1986; Viney, Henry, & Campbell, 2001; Viney, Truneckova, Weekes, & Oades, 1999).…”

Homeostasis versus growth: A view of their roles in adaptation to adversity, trauma, chronic illness, and physical disability. Part I: History, structure, and processes.

“…Finally, conceptualizations of psychological equilibrium/homeostasis are not confined to the models discussed earlier and can also be found, albeit more sketchily, in such domains as coping with crisis (e.g., crisis intervention; Antonovsky, 1987;Caplan, 1961;Viney et al, 1985;Zeidner & Saklofske, 1996). For example, in his sense of coherence (SOC) theory, Antonovsky suggested that underlying human functioning exists a global orientation, which he termed "generalized resistance resources" (e.g., ego strength, adaptive coping, wealth, social support), whose function is to promote health and homeostatic-restoring mechanisms.…”

The Efficacy of Personal Construct Therapy as a Function of the Type and Severity of the Presenting Problem

“…This category includes problems such as caring for someone with AIDS (Viney, Crooks, & Walker, 1995) or surviving childhood incest (Alexander, Neimeyer, Follette, Moore, & Harter, 1989). Studies that dealt with physical problems and aging worked with individuals who were potentially distressed but primarily identified as having some sort of physical problem such as chronic musculoskeletal pain (Haugli, Steen, Laerum, Nygard, & Finset, 2003) or medical hospitalization (Viney, Clarke, Bunn, & Benjamin, 1985a, 1985b. Problems categorized as "anxiety and fear" involved worry directed at some specific object (e.g., snakes; Lira, Nay, McCullough, & Etkin, 1975) or life situation (e.g., public speaking; Karst & Trexler, 1970).…”