Crisis Intervention and Triage

Crow (1977) and Plutchick (1980) describe depression, anxiety and anger as the three primary mood states of people in crisis. QPASS provides quick, accurate measures of all three of these conditions, which Myer, Williams, Ottens, and Schmidt (1992) recommend that crisis intervention specialists routinely assess in order to select the most appropriate intervention. QPASS also assesses the severity of self-harm and violent urges, which can often be experienced by individuals in crisis. In the aftermath of community traumas, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks, QPASS, as a triage instrument, can assist mental health teams in rapidly determining which victims are in the most need of mental health referral.

 References

Crow, G.  (1977). Crisis intervention.  New York: Association Press.

Myer, R. A., Williams, R.C., Ottens, A.J., & Schmidt, A. E. (1992). Crisis assessment: A three dimensional model for triage. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 14, 137-148.

Plutchick, R. (1980). Emotion: A psychoevolutionary synthesis. New York: Harper & Row.