Crisis Decision Reflection

• Apply the reading to a crisis situation where you as social worker made a rapid decision,

• Share your decision-making process,

• Share the outcome,

• Would you do things differently in hindsight?,

• What advice would you give supervisees in a similar situation?

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Answer:

In crisis practice, social workers are often placed in situations where they must make rapid decisions under pressure, balancing client safety with ethical and professional obligations. One example drawn from practice involves responding to a client experiencing acute suicidal ideation during a routine check-in. Applying the weekly reading, which emphasized the integration of crisis intervention models and ethical frameworks, I relied on a structured decision-making process to stabilize the situation.

My immediate step was to engage in active listening while assessing the severity of risk. Using a strengths-based approach, I acknowledged the client’s distress while also highlighting their protective factors. I quickly evaluated lethality by asking direct, clear questions regarding intent, plan, and means, as recommended by crisis intervention literature (Roberts & Ottens, 2005). Once I determined that the client posed an imminent risk, I activated the crisis protocol by contacting emergency services, informing the client of my duty to ensure their safety, and reaching out to their identified support system.

The outcome of this decision was that the client was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation and short-term stabilization. While the immediate safety needs were addressed, the client expressed feelings of betrayal, noting a sense of lost trust due to the mandated report. This highlighted the tension between preserving therapeutic rapport and fulfilling professional responsibilities.

In hindsight, while I would not change the core decision to prioritize safety, I would enhance the way I prepared the client for the intervention. Offering more clarity about limits of confidentiality from the outset, and providing emotional support during the emergency handoff, may have softened the sense of rupture.

For supervisees, my advice would be threefold: first, ground every rapid decision in established ethical and crisis intervention frameworks; second, prioritize client safety without hesitation; and third, communicate transparently about the reasoning behind actions. These strategies ensure that supervisees uphold professional standards while also mitigating client distress during crisis interventions.

Reference
Roberts, A. R., & Ottens, A. J. (2005). The seven-stage crisis intervention model: A road map to goal attainment, problem solving, and crisis resolution. Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention, 5(4), 329–339. https://doi.org/10.1093/brief-treatment/mhi030

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Would you like me to also draft the APA-style in-text citations directly in the response (e.g., “as Roberts and Ottens (2005) note…”), so it matches perfectly with the reference list?