Crisis, Coping and Healing

Crisis, Coping and Healing*
With the assaults on the innocents that occurred in our own area of Buffalo, NY and in Uvalde, Texas, we first reacted in shock, distress and extreme sorrow for the shooting  victims and their families. We looked at ourselves as a country in Crisis. What is a crisis? A crisis is when a person’s or a group’s usual and customary coping skills are no longer adequate to address a perceived stressful situation. Often such situations are novel and unexpected.  A crisis occurs when unusual stress, brought on by unexpected and disruptive events (such as the  latest store and school shootings), render an individual or a group to be physically and/or emotionally disabled or extremely impacted – because their usual coping mechanisms and past behavioral repertoire prove ineffective. A crisis overrides normal psychological and biological coping mechanisms (especially when the situation seems even more horrendous (the killing of children) and we see a society spinning out of control seemingly helpless in light of the destruction of human life.  A crisis can move individuals toward maladaptive behaviors. A crisis limits one’s ability to utilize more cognitively sophisticated problem-solving skills and conflict resolution skills. Crises can involve situations or conditions such as illness, attacks on person’s or group’s safety and/or security, effects of war,     losing one’s job, one’s reputation, scandals like those experienced in the Church, losing a loved one, etc. Crises are, by definition, time-limited. However, every crisis is a high risk situation.

Crisis intervention and management: The goals of any type of crisis intervention are to lessen the  intensity, duration, and presence of a crisis that is perceived as overwhelming and that can lead to more emotional unrest and/or destructive  behaviors. The objectives are to assist a person or group in regaining mastery, control, and predictability. This is accomplished by reinforcing healthy coping  skills and substituting more effective skills and responses instead of less effective skills and dysfunctional responses. The goal of crisis management is to re-establish equilibrium and  restore the individual to a state of feeling in control in a safe, secure, and stable environment. Under all circumstances under our Christian perspective, our faith, prayers and self-giving are foundational as a coping and healing response.

During a Crisis, it is important to understand the following areas: Current levels of response or  functioning, current threats to life or functioning, outside responders contacted or involved, coping resources available, social supports, identification of stressors, severity of stressors, past helpful ways of coping, past ineffective ways of coping, your self examination, evaluation of current status, future prognosis and follow-up. These areas and factors will be examined in a booklet that will be available in future weeks.

The following important resources can be of help in specific situations within our communities, parishes, schools and in our homes in the meantime.
 
Immediate Life-threatening Crisis: 911 Crisis Intervention Hotline: 
24 hour hotline:  (716) 834-3131   
 
 www.crisisservices.org
 
Catholic Charities (716) 218-1400 (main office); (716) 856-4494 (intake) 
 
Kids Helpline (716) 834-1144                                                                                                                                   National Child Abuse Hotline:  (800)-422-4453 -- (800) 4-A-CHILD 
Child Sexual Abuse Darkness to Light (Prevention)
866-FOR-LIGHT (866-367-5444) (Referrals given)
 
Mandated Reporters call 1-800-635-1522         
General Public call 1-800-342 3720                                                                              
24 Hour NYS Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse Hotline (800) 942-6906
 
Central Referral Services  211; 888-696-9211  www.211wny.org
 
Suicide Hotline:  (800) 273-8255 (TALK) 
 
*   Due to the current crises of violence faced by our country and in our communities the final part of Dealing with Loss: Suffering and Spirituality in a five-part series (5 out of 5) will be shared in the bulletin of Trinity Sunday,    June 12^th.