(Not in Course Syllabus Samples
- Undergraduate Syllabus
- Instructional aids: Undergraduate
- Graduate Syllabus
- Guest Seminar Case Study: Faculty/Student Crisis
For the two syllabus examples offered, only excerpts are included as a resource especially for new instructors and/or those who have not taught a crisis course. We assume that Syllabus format and content will vary among colleges, departments, accreditation requirements, and faculty discretion—for example, class topics and dates; bibliography; office hours; and policies regarding plagiarism, accommodation of persons with disabilities, etc.
Undergraduate Syllabus
This course is offered with an upper-division number in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Curry College, for an interdisciplinary student audience. Typically, students include the following majors: Sociology, Criminal Justice, Education, Nursing, and Psychology. The course is open as an Elective for all registered students college-wide.
Crisis Intervention
Instructor: Bonnie Joyce Hallisey, LICSW
Course Description:
People worldwide struggle with normal life transitions as well as the trauma of disasters and violence. Across cultures there are universal commonalities and unique differences in peoples' response to life stressors. Inherent in navigating life's troubled waters are the dialectic currents of danger and opportunity. Successful resolution of life challenges results in growth and strengthening. Unsuccessful responses result in suicides and homicides becoming leading causes of death in many societies while millions of women children and older adults are abused by domestic partners and caretakers. Violence prevention and resilience-building become vital individual and societal goals. Situating life crises in their sociological context requires cross-cultural awareness and a multi-disciplinary perspective.
This 3-credit course will study crises from the perspectives of systems theory, lifecycle developmental stages, mental health, public health and global diversity. The individual, the family and the role of the larger society will all be examined. Special attention will be focused upon disaster, suicide, interpersonal violence, war and post-traumatic stress. Risk assessment, helping strategies and vulnerability/ resilience will be explored.
The course meets twice weekly for 1.5 hours over a 14 week semester.
Objectives:
By conclusion of the course, students should achieve:
- Awareness that crisis care is everybody's business, not just the specialty of any one helping profession.
- Realization that crisis exists both within and outside the normal range of human experience.
- Familiarity with predictable life stages and risk of crisis therein.
- Knowledge that one does not have to be ill to be in crisis yet, if one is physically or mentally ill, crises are more likely.
- Ability to differentiate the situational, transitional, and social/cultural origins of crisis.
- Insight into the connection between the origin of crisis and its resolution.
- Diagnostic understanding of the state of crisis.
- Beginning competence in risk assessment and crisis intervention.
- Recognition of cultural and structural influences on behavior/ conditions of life.
- Culturally curious and respectful perspective.
Teaching/Learning Methods:
- Lectures,
- class discussions,
- journal writing,
- textbook,
- articles,
- videos,
- role play,
- student and guest presentations.
Required Text:
Hoff, L. A., Hallisey, B.J., & Hoff, M. (2009). People in Crisis: Clinical and Diversity Perspectives, 6th Edition. New York and London: Routledge.
Methods of Evaluation:
| Attendance and Journal assignments | 25% |
| Test 1 | 25% |
| Test 2 | 25% |
| Presentation/paper | 25% |
Journals:
Journals will be essays of one to three pages in which you will explore a real-life situation and apply concepts of crisis intervention. In your own words, you will use theory from the text to understand the particular type of crisis. Be self-reflective by considering your own values, beliefs, and attitudes to such a crisis and the culture/societal context in which it occurs.
Research paper and presentation:
Choose any one of the crises we covered in this course that has the most interest/relevance to you. Discuss the type of hazardous event and the societal context which gives rise to its occurrence. Consider preventive strategies to limit the hazard and its destructiveness. Using a case example, present vulnerabilities/ risk factors and the resilience/ protective factors. Identify precipitant, analyze the origin of the crisis, and formulate aids to positive resolution.
Course Expectations:
This course is structured in a seminar format. Therefore, attendance is critical. Students are expected to actively contribute his/her informed perspective in class discussions and be respectful of others. No eating, drinking, or smoking in the classrooms. Clear bottled water may be taken into the classrooms. Beepers and cell phones should be off during classroom time.
Instructional Aids: Undergraduate
The following Guideline serves a dual purpose for undergraduate students. While self-reflection is integral to success in any counseling and helping role, for some students—especially undergraduates—learning about crisis can easily stir up stressors or unresolved issues in their own lives. The related purpose is to use the "thriving/in-trouble" guide for learning to assess resilience and vulnerability of others in stressful or full-blown crisis situations.
Note: see also Student Self-care and Reflection section
Guideline: Resilience-Vulnerability Assessment in the Crisis Experience
It is important to asses the person's "usual functioning" before an impending crisis state. See column 1 in the resilience-vulnerability guide, below. It is helpful to consider a continuum from "thriving" to "in trouble." See + and- in the first row which correspond with whether a resolution is likely to be positive or negative. Consider three major dimensions of person's existence: Individual or how they are within themselves, Friends/Family or how they are in relationships and Society or how they are in larger community and world.
Column two regards the life stage that the person is in. For instance if a teenager is struggling with his or her homosexuality, it is particularly crucial issue at this developmental period when adolescents are trying to establish their own identity. Many societies assume heterosexuality, so that those who differ from the norm must define themselves against the prevailing culture. Since we are social creatures who internalize societal standards, homophobia is often internalized even within the individual with a same sex orientation. They may be conflicted within themselves prior to affirming their own identity, may be vulnerable if "coming out" to family and friends, and may feel not affirmed and discriminated against by larger society. The "safe school" programs and "gay-straight alliances" began as a support for the alarming suicide rate among homosexual teens. It is vital to consider this when planning aids to positive resolution.
Only by assessing one's usual functioning can we appreciate one's relative stability before a crisis. We can hypothesize that if one is thriving before a crisis he or she may be better able to withstand life's blows. Conversely, if one is "in trouble" already, then further hazardous events may imbalance the person more severely.
Being mindful of vulnerabilities and building in protective factors may make the difference between collapse under pressure or recovery with even enhanced growth.
Adapted from class discussion guide by Bonnie Joyce Hallisey, LICSW. Curry College
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Usual Functioning | Life Stage | Vulnerable State | Hazardous Event | Precipitant | Basic Attachments (more at risk) | Contributing Factors | Meaning of Crisis to Person |
|
Thriving
In Trouble |
Specific developmental time in person's life with particular tasks and themes that are significant and pose a challenge: both danger and opportunity |
Previous losses Illness Poor coping strategies Social factors |
Deeply disturbing event or situation |
An often minor trigger that sets things off "The straw that broke the camel's back" Acute, final, stressful happening in a series of difficulties that pushes someone from acute vulnerability into crisis |
Physical necessities Self identity Close loving relationship Group belonging Role performed w/dignity and respect Money |
Timing Duration Sequencing Cohort specificity Contextual purity Probability of occurrence |
Subjective interpretation Significance to life Meaning and values to set goals and understand self and world |
|
A person's resilience and vulnerability during crisis intersects with several fluid and interacting factors, including one's usual problem solving means. While there is opportunity for growth and development through crisis, the potential danger of crisis increases in the absence social support and other aids to a positive resolution. |
|||||||
Graduate Syllabus
This course was designed for a graduate certificate program entitled "Violence, Power and Gender Studies" at the Institute for Applied Psychology (ISPA) in Lisbon, Portugal. Students in the program included disciplines of psychology, social work, nursing, and specialized victim/survivor services (See Links: Life Crisis Institute, for basic assumptions of this program and interdisciplinary university or college-based collaboration opportunities for an adaptation of this certificate program under the title "Violence, Crisis, and Human Rights".)
Course Title: Emergency and Crisis Response to Survivors of Abuse - Theory and Practice
Faculty:
- Lee Ann Hoff, PhD, University of Massachusetts Lowell (Visiting Professor at ISPA)
- Dr. Raquel Cardoso, Associacao de Mulheres Contra a Violencia, Lisboa, Portugal
Place: Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada (ISPA) - Lisboa, Portugal
Hours: 30
Course Description
This interdisciplinary course includes basic crisis concepts, and strategies for prevention, assessment, intervention, and follow-up linkages for persons at risk or already injured by violence or abuse. Violence and abuse across the life-span are emphasized, as well as the intersection between victimization, violence, suicide, and other self-destructive behaviors. The course draws on concepts from psychology, victimology, nursing, sociology, and anthropology to critically assess the individual's experience of crisis, and the approaches used in family and human service systems to help people in crisis (e.g., child, partner, and elder abuse, sexual assault, death, divorce, job loss, suicide attempt).
The focus is on crisis situations identified by students from the literature and their experience with clients from health, social service, and community based agencies. It includes a clinical practicum - that is, exercises and assignments designed to assist students in applying crisis theory to actual practice situations. Classroom discussion and critique aim to aid students in refining their skills in crisis prevention and intervention on behalf of persons at risk.
Pre-requisites
Students registering for this class should have completed at least one psychology, and one sociology course (or request permission of the Certificate Program Coordinator). Students are not required to be a health or social services student to register for this course; for example, every parent or spouse needs to recognize signs of abuse or suicide risk and how to respond to a family member in crisis.
Course Objectives
Students will be assisted to:
- Identify historical facets of the crisis field, the key concepts, and its interdisciplinary status.
- Differentiate the crisis model from other human service models.
- Review crisis theory as a basis for assessment and intervention.
- Identify clinical or other situations for use in applying:
- crisis assessment skills on behalf of distressed persons/families, especially those victimized by violence;
- crisis prevention skills aimed at reducing violence and risk of injury to self and others;
- basic crisis care strategies on behalf of persons/families in crisis;
- assessment and intervention techniques on behalf of persons victimized by violence, and/or who are destructive toward self and others.
- Consider the relevance of social network techniques on behalf of individuals and families in acute and repeated crisis situations in home, community, or institutional settings (e.g. seriously abused or disturbed persons who are crisis-prone).
- Explore the role of team relationships and consultation for effective care of persons at risk or already in crisis.
- Identify and discuss special clinical issues and approaches in the crisis field, as indicated by student interests.
Class Units/Major Themes
- Unit I: Crisis Theory and Practice
- Unit II: Violence as Origin of and Response to Crisis
- Unit III: Group Approaches to Crisis Care, Social Change, and Special Topics
- Unit IV: Practice Applications and Synthesis
Methods and Schedule
This course will be conducted in seminar and workshop formats. Methods include reading, case studies, film, mini-lectures, topical discussion, and presentation and critique of student projects. Students are expected to bring examples from professional or personal experience with life crises.
Schedule: The schedule for this course is designed to accommodate the needs of adult learners who may hold regular jobs, and the availability of guest and local faculty.
Evaluation
| Classroom participation/Self-evaluation | 25 percent |
| Practice application | 50 percent |
| Final exam | 25 percent |
Required Reading
- Hoff, L.A. (2009). People in Crisis: Understanding and Helping. 6th Edition. New York: Routledge.
- Fiction selected by student (should depict life crisis in sociocultural context)
- Selected articles placed on reserve
- Handouts
Course Requirements/Assignments
- Attendance of seminars and workshops
- Completion of short assignments around seminar topics
- Completion of community-based assignment applying crisis theory to practice with survivors of abuse.
- Completion of a take-home Final Examination.
Guidelines - Completion of Course Assignments
-
Short assignments: See Workbook - Part I: Summary of Key Concepts; Part II: Worksheets and Class Discussion Guide.
As you attend movies and watch television, try to connect what you see to your reading and the depiction of life crises, violence and abuse in popular culture or historical perspective, and share your observations in seminar sessions.
- From student-selected fiction:
- Identify and briefly describe the person/family and type of crisis experienced by the fictional character(s).
- Briefly describe the social, cultural, political, and related factors that may explain:
- why this person/family is in crisis
- the manner in which the crisis was resolved—positively or negatively—e.g., in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, a patriarchal society denied child custody to a mother who left her marriage for another man; Anna ultimately resolved her crises by suicide.
- What did you learn about the crisis experience and people's coping ability from reading this piece of fiction?
- Practice application: See Workbook, Part I, and Part II. Specific items and directions to be supplied.
Guest Seminar: Case Study: Faculty/Student Crisis - Lee Ann Hoff, PhD
(Information in this case is taken from actual events, with some details changed to protect privacy.)
Dr. Jane Doe, a health sciences professor (physical therapy program) at University Anywhere, looked forward to the semester break as she returned to her home ready to relax after a busy day. At 6:00 p.m. she answered her doorbell rung by one of her graduate students who wanted to discuss his grade. Professor Doe asked him to wait as she changed from lounging clothes, and agreed to meet him at a nearby coffee shop. The student then pulled out a knife and stabbed Professor Doe in the chest. She screamed and struggled with him to ward off further assault. Neighbors in her apartment building heard the screams, called 911, and came to assist her. The student ran down the street and was quickly apprehended by police. Professor Doe was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital and treated in intensive care for her life-threatening injuries over several days. Later it was learned that the student, an immigrant, age 26, with no history of violence and a satisfactory academic record, had stalked Professor Doe from the university parking lot all the way to her home, and waited near the apartment building until he was sure she had entered her home 10 miles from the University.
Discussion Questions:
- At the point of meeting and subsequent assault: Without either blaming the victim or excusing the assailant, how might this life-threatening crisis have been prevented?
- What post-crisis services are appropriate for Professor Doe as a victim/survivor of assault?
- On learning of the assault, what immediate actions should the university have taken on behalf of faculty, other employees, and students?
- What are the implications of this case for university-based support and violence prevention services on behalf of students in distress and/or impending crisis?
- What are the particular stressors faced by immigrant students studying in a foreign country?
- What services might be provided faculty who are not mental health professionals to recognize and appropriately intervene on behalf of students in serious distress and a danger to themselves and/or others?
- What are the sociocultural implications of this case?