Crisis Intervention Seminars

Name:

1. With regard to emergency assessments of child and adolescent clients, consideration of functioning in the three major life spheres is a useful approach to evaluating the seriousness of the circumstances. One of the three major life spheres is:

   1. functioning at home
   2. functioning at school
   3. functioning with respect to current emotional state
   4. both (a) and (b)

2. In the emergency assessment situation, if the client asks for advice and guidance, the clinician should:

   1. provide the most useful advice he or she is able, because doing so will usually be comforting to the client
   2. remember that a reasonable understanding of the client and his or her situation is not yet available, and refrain from providing advice
   3. only provide advice in connection with complex issues, because the client's confidence and self-esteem is likely to rise if he or she takes responsibility for straightforward issues, and successfully manages these
   4. provide advice only in connection with straightforward issues, and only for child clients

3. With respect to the characteristics of a crisis, which of the following is true?

   1. The distress people in crisis tend to experience alienates them from helping resources
   2. Crises are usually self-limiting: some kind of resolution will likely occur within a relatively short period of time
   3. Because crises evolve from life circumstance turmoil, they are not associated with greater risk with respect to the onset of psychopathology
   4. Both (a) and (b)

4. The criterion that is often used to evaluate the client's need for admission to a psychiatric inpatient facility is:

   1. the client's ability to function outside the hospital
   2. the client's need for antidepressant medication
   3. the presence of an anxiety disorder
   4. the degree of disruption which the admission is likely to cause to the client's important interpersonal relationships

5. Which of the following types of sleep disorders are most closely connected with anxiety, as well as depression?

   1. hypersomnia
   2. early morning awakening
   3. initial insomnia
   4. intermittent wakefulness

6. In the emergency assessment situation, which of the following questions is most likely to reveal that a new and vitally important ingredient has entered the crisis?

   1. Has the person recently been prescribed a psychiatric medication?
   2. Has the person attempted suicide in the past?
   3. Why is the person here now?
   4. What is the person's primary feeling state at this time?

7. People who commit suicide:

   1. have usually not communicated their intention to do so to others
   2. are, in the majority of circumstances, suffering from a mental illness characterized by psychotic disturbance
   3. have usually attempted suicide at some time in the past
   4. almost never do so in accordance with a carefully developed suicidal plan, because the suicidal act is ordinarily highly impulsive

8. Delusions are best described as phenomena associated with:

   1. thought broadcast
   2. perceptual disorder
   3. thought insertion
   4. false beliefs

9. With respect to risk of suicidal behaviour, which emotional state is associated with particularly high risk?

   1. sadness
   2. anxiety
   3. calm
   4. anger / bitterness

10. There are two basic response categories involved in the experience of anxiety. One of these is emotional / physiological. The other is:

    1. behavioural
    2. situational
    3. phobic
    4. cognitive

11. The hallmark of psychosis is:

    1. impaired reality testing
    2. the presence of high risk with respect to homicide
    3. disrupted family relationships
    4. both (a) and (b)

12. The minimal goal of crisis counselling is to:

    1. assist the client to return to his or her precrisis level of functioning
    2. assist the client to resolve long term problems via an insight oriented psychotherapy approach
    3. achieve reduction in suicide risk
    4. stabilize the client's relationships with members of his or her immediate family

13. Obsessive compulsive disorder is:

    1. a psychotic disturbance
    2. very likely to be experienced by crisis prone persons
    3. an anxiety disorder
    4. a condition which strongly signals the need for admission to an inpatient psychiatric setting

14. With respect to those interpersonal variables which can assist in identifying the crisis prone person, ______________________ is a particularly common emotional experience for such individuals.

    1. sadness
    2. flat affect
    3. anxiety
    4. anger / rage

15. Operating at a process level with crisis prone clients:

    1. obscures accurate appreciation of the dynamics of the crisis
    2. is at cross purposes with assisting the client to identify needs
    3. results in inadequate appreciation of the long term nature of the crisis prone person's difficulties
    4. none of the above

16. Emotional homeostasis is:

    1. a form of crisis counselling
    2. that condition which precedes the onset of psychotic disturbance
    3. the absence of tension
    4. both (b) and (c)

17. Which symptom(s) of depression would cause you to give consideration to recommending a medical assessment directed towards evaluating the need for antidepressant medication?

    1. diminished appetite
    2. reduced energy level displayed via psychomotor retardation
    3. diminished interest in pleasurable activities, including diminished sexual interest
    4. all of the above

18. Crisis counselling emphasizes prioritization of problems on the basis of:

    1. urgency
    2. importance
    3. ease of resolution
    4. none of the above

19. Higher risk with respect to completed suicide s associated with:

    1. male, rather than female, gender
    2. older, rather than younger, age
    3. both (a) and (b)
    4. neither (a) nor (b)

20. In conducting emergency assessments, obtaining background information about the client, via such activities as reviewing a report, if one is available, is:

    1. desirable, because the information base is expanded
    2. not really necessary in the case of child clients, because parents / guardians are typically available to provide information
    3. undesirable, because the information may have a biasing effect on the assessing clinician's perspective
    4. not really necessary unless the person in crisis appears to be presenting high risk with respect to either suicidal or homicidal behaviour

21. With respect to recognizing and intervening with the crisis prone person:

    1. such individuals are unlikely to have experienced significant childhood trauma
    2. the responsibility for change and improvement is best accepted by the counsellor, because of the significant level of dysfunction such persons are inclined to present
    3. the counsellor should deal with boundary considerations in the therapeutic relationship as early as possible
    4. both (b) and (c)

22. With respect to conducting emergency assessments, physical touch of the client by the counsellor, such as taking the client's hand when the client is upset, is:

    1. desirable, because the client will feel comforted
    2. desirable, because the counsellor is experienced as more "genuine" by the client
    3. both (a) and (b)
    4. neither (a) nor (b)

23. With regard to recent trends in the area of suicide, during the past several decades:

    1. the rate of completed suicide among young persons is essentially unchanged
    2. the rate of completed suicide among women has increased
    3. both (a) and (b)
    4. neither (a) nor (b)

24. Crisis counselling emphasizes:

    1. accurate identification of problems
    2. specification of available options
    3. constructing arrangements to permit the outcome of the selected course of action to be assessed
    4. all of the above

25. In the context of conducting an emergency assessment, the counsellor is frequently in the position of giving consideration to asking the client questions which the client is likely to experience as emotionally painful. In such circumstances, the counsellor should:

    1. avoid asking such questions because doing so will increase the client's distress
    2. attempt to prepare the client for the introduction of such material into the interview
    3. refrain from presenting such questions to child clients
    4. none of the above