Crisis Prevention Institute

A few days ago I was lucky enough to have had the opportunity to be trained in Nonviolent Crisis Intervention. Why you ask, was a speech pathologist attending such a training? Well the answer is simple. Many speech pathologists work as part of a multi-disciplinary team. This team can include psychologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, social workers, special education teachers, etc.

As part of this team, we often encounter children with a variety of disorders which can often include behavioral. It is not uncommon for a child to receive speech therapy as well as counseling. Many of these children are unaware of how to take out anxiety and frustration. Because of this, it can come out in other ways such as verbal or physical aggression.

I had a wonderful instructor named Lindy Blazek. She made the training very enjoyable using personal experiences. The goal of this program is to provide for the Care, Welfare, Safety and Security of everyone involved in a crisis situation.

Some of the things I learned included the appropriate CPI stance to allow children to feel respect, have personal space yet allowing myself an escape route if necessary. The class learned about verbal intervention when a child may show signs of escalation. We also learned several block and move techniques to protect ourselves in such a case. These blocks are not only important to keep ourselves safe, but more importantly, keep the child safe by preventing them from hurting themselves.

My favorite part of the training was when we all had a chance to share personal experiences. It was so interesting to hear all of my colleagues who have been in these predicaments.

Overall, I really enjoyed the class. My colleagues and I are presenting the information to my school next week as we felt this is information was too important not to share!