Behavioural, Educational, and Research Consultants

Schools face a number of crisis situations, including suicide or other student death, violence, and natural disasters, that may impact individual students or create school-wide crises. As crises can impact students and overall school safety and functioning, swift and specific responses are needed. In addition to the potential physical threat of these situations, they also can take an emotional toll on students and school personnel.

Our approach to working with school crises mis adapted from the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) model for crisis management. This model includes three essential tasks to re-establishing functioning within the school. The first involves establishing safety and security. When the crisis counselor is communicating with victims it is important to give them privacy to express emotions and to let them know that their reactions and emotions are acceptable. It is important, however, to recognize that individuals respond to crises in different ways and the counselor should not impart his or her preconceived notion of how to react on any individual. The second task is to allow ventilazation and validation. Let the individual tell her or his story (ventilate) and insure them that their reaction is normal and their experience unique. The third task (prediction and preparation) involves predicting issues that will be faced by victims in the near future and helping them make preparations. This includes the likelihood of future emotional responses.

We can work with schools to help them develop crisis intervention procedures, modify existing procedures, or provide hands-on services in the event of a crisis.