AY Honors/Conflict Resolution/Answer Key

1. Be at least in the 10th grade.

This will be for those in 10th grade/Sophomore in high school or at least 15 years of age in a location where such school grades have no equivalent or for home school and non-schooled children. *This Honor will require an instructor, contact your church Counselor or conference office for assistance or ACS or ADRA for a trainer for Crisis Intervention or Grief Counseling.

3. Describe for your instructor some of the human needs and crisis situations that teenagers in your community face today. Describe some of the crisis situations that families face. This may be done in a group discussion setting.

Often in any crisis wether it be a wide area disaster or the loss of a close family member the emotional crisis can be devistating to an individual. Not all people are emotionally equipped to react and continue to even function when facing what many would call an overwhelming situation. For these people imediate assistance is needed as they may have frozen themselves in a dangerous location, may become depressed even to the point of suicidal or may react in outrage and violent fashion.

To help to bring these reactions to a close or to a point controllable first the person must be helped to a place physically and mentally where they are not in imediate danger and they must be hleped to realize this. In the case of the loss of a parent this may mean that the teen is helped t realize that they have many friends, and family, a community that will help them to go on and provide for there needs.

The human needs of any individual start with the same basics: shelter, water, and food. As Christians we recognize the need first for God and our relationship with Him and will remind those we help to keep this need first in all things. Beyond these basic needs there are possibly physical medical and emotional support needs that will be considered. A person injured in the fire that has destroyed their home needs medical attention before he needs emotional support (although the two may come nearly simultaniously at times). In professional occupations that deal with high stress matters or regular human suffering the emotional support to follow is most often called Crital Incident Stress Debriefing. This is a form of counseling that is important not only to professionals like firefighters but also to families and communities in need.

The stress of an incident can be overwheliming and may manifest itself some great time later or be a fixture in a person's actions and outlook to life and although not all people are effected by such stress it is best to see to the potential needs of a person in crisis to avert the possible self destruction that may come. In this we consider not only what a person says they are feeling and facing, not only what they have gone through but in the long term what they are like today vs. the person they were before their crisis.

In immediate intervention you will be a shoulder to lean on, someone to offer support, to be yelled at, to be cried to. You will offer encouragement and help to arrange for those basic needs of shelter, water, and food. You will report to your "supervisor" in intervention any issue you observe that may need to be referred to professional counseling. You will be a friend.

Families face a variety of crisis situations and some things that some may not consider to be a crisis can be devestating. For this purpose we will list common crisis situations: House fire Death of a loved one Loss of income Terminal disease Birth Defects Multiple Births (quintuplets for example, imagine five kids at one time could be stressful) Serious Injury Natural Disaster

References

How to Help a Friend (second edition) by Paul Welter, Tyndale House, Wheaton, Illinois (1991)

Christ-Centered Caring by Ronaele Whittington, AdventSource, Lincoln, Nebraska (1990)