A psychological crisis is a sudden, generally unanticipated event that profoundly and negatively affects a significant segment of the school population and often involves serious injury or death. Because we live in a society that is becoming increasingly complex and volatile it is unlikely that any school will escape the necessity of responding to a significant psychological crisis and it is essential for all schools to develop a crisis plan and equip it’s staff with the skills, knowledge and strategies to help at such times.
Experience shows that, when school personnel are prepared to deal with crisis, such incidents can be used to unite students and staff in building confidence and cohesiveness among themselves.
Be it sudden student, parent, staff deaths by accident or illness through to bush fires, suicides, motor vehicle accidents, homicides or abductions the reality is that generally such crises cannot be predicted. However, the good news is that the human response to such crises tend to be consistent and very predictable.
Being aware of and understanding beforehand, how people will react in a critical situation make it possible to implement a plan that defuse those reactions and prevent them from precipitating a secondary crisis.
This workshop represents a crash course in psychological crisis management which functions as a time-limited, problem-focused intervention designed to identify, confront and resolve the crisis, restore equilibrium, and support appropriate adaptive responses.
This workshop will cover :

• A brief introduction to Crisis Intervention
• How to responding to a crisis - including drawing up a crisis plan,    forming a crisis teams
• Outline the most Common problems with crisis plans
• The ABC of Crisis Communication - How to listen, What to Say and How to React
• How to manage the media
• Provide a list of resources to help with Crisis intervention

Managing a Psychological Crisis in Schools Power Point Presentations

Managing the Media

Parent Guidelines for Crisis Response

Practical Suggestions for Assisting Children

Teacher Guidelines for Crisis Response

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg
Dr Michael Carr-Gregg is one of Australia’s most high profile psychologists, who works in private practice and has worked with many schools in crisis. He currently works as a consultant psychologist to the Victorian Association of Secondary School Principals and the Australian Boarding Staff. He has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne, he has been one of the key figures in research, education and advocacy in adolescent mental health in Australia. He is a founding member of the National Coalition Against Bullying and CanTeen. He is a columnist for many publications including Girlfriend Magazine, Australian Doctor, the Herald Sun and regularly appears on Channel 7's top rating Sunrise program and as the program psychologist on Fairfax radio 3AW.