Crisis Resources

School Counselors:  Please remember to take care of yourself as you are working to take care of the needs of so many others.  It is important to take breaks, get exercise, engage in your own normal activities, and seek out your own assistance, whether through supervision or personal therapy, depending on the situation at hand.

From the American School Counselor Association:

• Try and keep routines as normal as possible. Kids gain security from the predictability of routine, including attending school.  
• Limit exposure to television and the news.  
• Be honest with kids and share with them as much information as they are developmentally able to handle.  (This includes lessons and talks to classrooms after the crisis)
• Listen to kids’ fears and concerns.   
• Reassure kids that the world is a good place to be, but that there are people who do bad things. 
• Parents and adults need to first deal with and assess their own responses to crisis and stress.  
• Rebuild and reaffirm attachments and relationships. (source: www.schoolcounselor.org)
• Additional webinars, books, and resources from ASCA

The resources from ASCA include ways to develop a crisis plan for your school if you do not already have one.  I strongly recommend having a plan in place before a crisis occurs and reviewing it with all team members at least once a year.
  

How to Talk to Kids About the News from PBS.org: 

• Tips on how to listen and respond to kids' questions
• Helping kids through the act of play
• Ideas based on the developmental age of the child
• Ideas for how to start these challenging conversations

These resources are excellent to share with school staff as well as parents through your school counseling department's blog, Twitter feed, webpage, or newsletter.

From the National Association of School Psychologists:

• Tips on how adults, parents, and schools can best serve kids during and after a crisis
• Advice on sheltering-in-place
• Tips on memorials/remembrances/rituals at school following a crisis
• Managing strong emotional reactions to crisis in adults and kids
• Additional resources about more specific types of crises and assisting specific populations of students

The strength of these resources is that they become very detailed with specific types of crisis as well as how best to talk about these difficult topics with special needs students and through a multi-cultural lens.

From the American Counseling Association:

• Disaster and Trauma Responses of Children
• Disaster and Trauma Effects on Parents
• One-to-One Crisis Counseling
• Helping Survivors with Stress Management Skills
• Additional Disaster Mental Health Resources

Excellent single page fact sheets to give you tips on how best to serve all of those in your school community affected by a crisis.


From the Crisis Management Institute:

• Free resources for Counselors, Administrators, and Parents

From the National Child Traumatic Stress Network:

• Pyschological First Aid for Schools (PFA-S) Manual