Crisis Intervention

Crisis Intervention Case Study: 'Jason'

'Jason 'came to us after his Social Worker had been seeking a specialist medium-term placement  following a short stay in a secure unit.  The referral was made because of the high level of risk the young person was placing himself in whilst living in a foster family near his home town.'Jason' frequently absconding from this placement, often not returning to the foster carers over night, or for several days.

During this placement there were concerns about the people Jason was associating with, this leading to some criminal behaviour, and a suspected high level of drug use.'Jason' was deemed to be at risk of accidental suicide through substance misuse as his behaviours quickly became erratic and as a result  was becoming too difficult for his current foster family to manage.

We were able to provide a Crisis Intervention placement in one of our specialist residential units. Our initial assessment conclude that  2:1 staffing with waking night was required  to alleviate the risks of accidental suicide, in turn working closely withthe young person on his emotional state and providing a level of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in the short term as part of his treatment plan.

The core purpose of this placement was to ensure the immediate safety of the young person from accidental death. providing  respite for the foster family and providing  us time to work on his presenting behavioural difficulties to allow the move back into family life, to reintegrate into education and assess, provide the required level of psychotherapy to support his care plan.  

We were able to provide Jason  twice weekly psychotherapy with our  psychotherapist who worked 1:1 with 'Jason' providing targeted work such as SUST (Substance Use Screening Tool) to address his drug use. As a result significant changes in the young person's behaviours were observed, enabling the Social worker to consider the longer term care plan requirements.

The Five Rivers psychotherapist also worked with the residential practitioners  supporting them to deliver a clinical method of working, providing strategies to enable the young person to be safe and understand the impact of  his presenting behaviours.

A core element of the care plan was to reintroduce Jason into education which was achieved through slow integration into a classroom setting,  we provided 2:1 teaching and a structured timetable that encompasses various  types of learning styles to keep him occupied and interested and engaged in education. 'Jason' particularly took to English as a subject and excelled and exceeded many expectations.

Throughout the placement Five Rivers remained committed to working with the foster carers teaching them  parenting skills within the 'Authentic Model of Child Care' which provided an accessible model of behavioural management to help  ease the disruption of reintegration into family life and also ensure the move back home was successful.

The above depicts real Five Rivers case studies names have been changed and actors used in the films to protect the identities of the children and young people involved.