Crisis and Disaster-Related Interventions in Psychology

Catalog description

This course will provide students foundational knowledge about crisis intervention and disaster interventions. Students will learn about empirically supported models and best practices of psychological interventions during disasters, taking into context cultural and trauma-specific contextual information. Students will be trained in basic crisis intervention skills and psychological first aid and practice crisis case handling. Students will learn about how to handle specific crisis situations and how to handle issues of burnout, vicarious traumatization, and compassion fatigue in disaster and crisis situations. By the end of the course, students will be able to describe clinicians' roles and responsibilities as members of an interdisciplinary emergency response team during a local, regional, or national crisis, disaster, or other trauma-causing event and know the skills needed to provide crisis intervention services. Students will also learn how to differentiate between diagnosis and developmentally appropriate reactions during crisis, trauma, and disaster using appropriate assessment and diagnosis. Students will be given the opportunity to practice crisis assessment and intervention, as well as learn how assessment, diagnosis, and treatment may be influenced by crisis, trauma, and disasters.