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Crisis Intervention
Maria Linda B. Belo
Advanced of technology, industrial development, fast growth of population, global,

environmental, social, economic and political influence; sociocultural and spiritual
practices; war; calamities and disasters that affect ecology are social realities that
cause stress on individuals. Advanced technology and industrial development create
gaps between the unlearned, unskilled, the rich and the poor. Natural disasters, war,
social unrest and hazardous events increase insecurity, create anxiety and stress that
impede social functioning, and place the person in a kind of crisis.
Today there is more challenge for social workers to intervene with people in crisis.
Crisis situations occur at any point in the life of individuals, families, groups or
communities usually precipitated by a hazardous event that creates an impact and
disturbs the individual’s equilibrium. Crises are predictable and this factor intensifies
the individual’s reaction to crisis. Hazardous events can be experienced by people as a
threat, challenge or loss (Rapoport 1970).
Crisis intervention is also referred to as disequilibrium, disorientation and / or
disruption. Elisa Albao (1984) referred to crisis as people’s emotional reaction to a
situation and not the situation itself. In this sense, the social workers work with the
person’s perception and judgement on the crisis, not on the actual event itself. Albao
also stated that “a person usually responds to and reacts to crisis depending on his past
learning experience, how he reacted to minor crises through childhood and
adolescence.”
Leonora de Guzman (1992) defined crisis intervention as a case work approach
which helps restore social functioning of a person during a period of dis-equilibrium.
It aims to reduce the effects of stressful events, helps mobilize the person’s latent
capacities and capabilities so that he can cope more effectively with the effects of the
crisis.
Crisis intervention is a widely known mode of intervention and shares much in
common with the task centered casework: it is temporary and focuses on social
problems rather that psychopathology; rather than psychopathology; it involves a
higher level of activity on the part of the social worker, it employs tasks as a
technique of change efforts and it can also make use of various theories. It is a model
of intervention which relieves the client’s emotional stress by doing the stress
debriefing and other approaches where the clients are encouraged to unburden
themselves of painful and overwhelming emotion(help-worth and Larsen 1990).
Crisis intervention is a practice modality widely employed to assist people to
adjust successfully following stressful events or during maturational crises that have
temporarily overwhelmed their coping capacities. It is a process of restoring social
functioning of the individual affected by the crisis situation. It helps the person
reactivate his innate potentials and coping mechanism that could actively influence
and restore social functioning. The concept states that every individual with innate
potentials and capacities has been provided with coping mechanisms to cope with
crisis intervention theorists, “most crisis situations are limited to a period of four to
eight weeks during which time people manage to achieve a degree of equilibrium that
may be equivalent to the precrisis level of functioning “ ( Hep-worth and Larsen
1992).
Crisis intervention lessens the immediate impact or effect of the stressful situation
and facilitates the work of those in the social environment to mobilize resources. It is
appropriately needed by persons in crisis especially if they express their desire for
help, are able to sustain a helping relationship with a helping person during the period
of crisis until the time they are able to cope with and overcome the crisis situation.
HISTORICAL BACGROUND
The historical evolution of social work practice indicated that in the past, social
workers’ response to needs were simple. In France, where poverty, economic
dislocation were brought about by the french revolution, St. Vincent de Paul, widely
known as the father of charity, challenged the Ladies of Charity and the first
Daughters of Charity to intervene with this crisis and serve the poor victims with love
and compassion.
Spanish Colonization
Establishment of Hospitals in the sixteenth century, during the colonization of the
Philippines by Spain, Christianity was.

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Crisis Intervention

Maria Linda B. Belo

Advanced of technology, industrial development, fast growth of population, global,

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