Part 1: Interview (all question do not have to be in paper) up to 5

To learn more about crisis intervention and trauma-informed community-based strategies (such as Psychological First Aid), for this assignment, you will contact a licensed professional individual to interview (in person or via phone), who knows of an existing crisis response plan. Identify the person you interview and their specific job or role, such as crisis counselor or a member of the Red Cross or Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), or therapists who work with victims of PTSD or are involved in Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD), and arrange an interview. Once you arrange a personal interview, develop a set of open-ended questions that will allow you to gain a clear and complete picture of their plan as it currently exists. (See the sample interview questions provided in the Project Description.)

Ask your interviewee to give you a specific example of an actual crisis and the details of the various roles that are involved in the plan that is utilized, including any mental health professionals. Examine what you are told by the interviewee, and compare it to the processes outlined in Psychological First Aid, provided in the Resources.

Part 2: Description and Analysis

Describe and analyze a counselor’s role and responsibilities as a member of interdisciplinary community outreach and emergency management response teams in a crisis response. Summarize the responsibilities of the counselor within the mental health component of the crisis response system in order to identify the type of necessary training for the role of the counselor.

To successfully complete this project, you will be expected to do the following:

1. Compare and contrast the elements of a real-world example of an emergency management plan, obtained through your personal interview of a professional in the field, to the elements identified in the course studies, particularly Psychological First Aid, provided in the Resources.
2. Summarize the responsibilities of the counselor, including the professional role, functions, and relationships as a member of a crisis response plan during a local, regional, or national crisis, disaster, or other trauma-causing event (CACREP, 2016).
3. Describe in detail the specific skills and knowledge required by a counselor in order to function effectively as a member of an interdisciplinary emergency management response team.
4. Describe the types of training a counselor requires to develop the required skills and knowledge relevant to emergency management.
5. Exhibit proficiency in effective, credible academic writing and critical thinking skills.
   

   Sample Interview Questions

   1. In a crisis, are there critical time lines to be considered? If so, what are they?
   2. Is there a developmental time sequence to a crisis? If so describe it.
   3. Considering a community-wide crisis, who are the local people or organizations that I need to contact? In what order or sequence or time do I do that?
   4. Considering a community-wide crisis, who are the state and national people or organizations that I need to contact? In what order or sequence or time do I do that?
   5. What helpful or positive role can the local media play in helping to resolve the crisis? How does one facilitate this?
   6. What helpful or positive role can the national media play in helping to resolve the crisis? How does one facilitate this?
   7. Who are the critical players on your emergency management team? Why are they critical?
   8. What is the worst eco-systemic crisis you can imagine? Why?
   9. What kind of training, education, and experience do you believe should be required to be an effective and competent manager of a community-wide crisis such as the one you described above?
   10. Given a natural disaster such as a community-wide crisis, how do you go about coordinating and communicating an effective response?
   11. When the crisis situation exceeds your local capacities and resources to respond, how and when do you know who to call for help?
   12. What are your back-up resources? Do you have redundancy in your system? In case I or any of my staff become incapacitated for any reason, are there persons available who can effectively step in and assume the vacated responsibilities?
   13. What kind of emergency crisis interventions are going to be provided for those who survive? Who is going to provide the interventions? When will it happen?
   14. When and under what conditions will you declare the crisis situation terminated?
   15. Do you believe that current stress reduction procedures, such as CISD for emergency workers, are helpful? If yes, how so; if no, how not?
   16. What steps do you take to take care of your own stress and trauma and that of your staff?
   17. What are the response team’s goals, functions, operations, organizational structure, and responsibilities?
   18. Who is in charge of what security provisions?
   19. What balance needs to be maintained between security of staff and providing human services?
   20. What kinds of training do staff receive to prepare for emergencies?
   21. What screening devices are used for volunteer selection? Are they reliable and valid?
   22. What security personnel will be needed? Where and when?
   23. Are there emergency contingency plans for a variety of problems? Do staff members know what is expected of them under varying circumstances?
   24. Does the crisis response management team have a protocol for dealing with violent situations?
   25. Who is in charge of responding to threats or physical violence?
   26. * Please make up an interview with a counselor*