People in Crisis ─ Clinical and Diversity Perspectives

The first edition of People in Crisis, published in 1978, established success as a comprehensive and user-friendly text for health and social service professionals. The book and its following incarnations included critical life events and life cycle transition challenges, clearly pointing out the interconnections between such events, stressful developmental changes, and their potential for growth but also danger of suicide and/or violence toward others.
This revised edition includes new case examples and expanded coverage of cross-cultural content, including 'commonalities and differences' in origins, manifestations, and crisis responses. The authors illustrate the application of crisis concepts, assessment, and intervention strategies across a wide range of health and mental health settings, as well as at home, school, workplace, and in the community. Each chapter contains a closing summary that includes discussion questions, references, and online data sources for maximum application and learning. Updated chapters discuss new, research-based content on:
• workplace violence and abuse• youth violence in schools and higher education settings• the use of psychotropic drugs, including for very young children in the absence of comprehensive assessment• the crisis vulnerability of war veterans and the hazards of 'pathologizing' what should be considered a 'normal' response to the repeated and catastrophic trauma of war• the intersection of socio-political factors with individuals’ psychological healing from catastrophic experiences such as war and natural disaster.

Lee Ann Hoff, Ph.D., is a nurse-anthropologist and crisis specialist and the founding director of the Life Crisis Institute, an international not-for-profit organization based in Boston and Ottawa and is professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Health Sciences. She has extensive experience as an educator, consultant, clinician, and crisis service manager.

Part 1: The Understanding and Practice of Crisis Intervention 1. Crisis Theory and Practice: Introduction and Overview 2. Understanding People in Crisis 3. Identifying People at Risk 4. Helping People in Crisis 5. Family and Social Network Strategies During Crisis Part 2: Crisis Related to Developmental and Situational Transitional States 6.Stress and Change During Life Passages 7. Threats to Health and Self-image 8. Threats to Occupational and Residential Security Part 3: Suicide, Violence, and Catastrophic Events 9. Suicide and Other Self-destructive Behavior: Understanding and Assessment 10. Helping Self-destructive People and Survivors of Suicide 11. The Crisis of Victimization by Violence 12. The Violent or Abusive Person: Individual and Sociocultural Factors 13. Violence and Crisis from Disaster. Glossary. Index.