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Abstract
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General Philosophy and Purpose
We are living in an era when more and more notice is being given to the fact that there is a critical shortage of professional personnel to handle the increasing incidence of emotional disorders. For that reason, it is necessary, not only that professionals, but also para-professionals be more adequately trained to augment the ranks of present caretakers. The professional community often lags behind new developments and therapeutic techniques, and demonstrates resistance to the inclusion of those caretakers who do not reflect their own background. Yet it is likely that the basic sensitivity of some nonprofessionals can enable them to offer therapeutic aid to the emotionally disturbed.
The philosophy of the SPCS training program is that basic sensitivity, either in a professional or a non-professional, is necessary but not sufficient. Highly specialized learning is also necessary.
The goal of the counselor training program at the Suicide Prevention and Crisis Service is to help each counselor make the most creative use of this or her own style of helpfulness, while developing knowledge and skill about the problem-solving process, including a variety of counseling techniques. The counselors in this agency are trained specifically in certain specialties in a program that runs for 52 weeks of full-time study (counseling over the telephone, counseling with suicidal patients, and crisis intervention)...
The mental health counselors have been exposed to formal learning. No psychodynamic or psychiatric knowledge has been withheld from them because of a feeling that it was over their heads. Rather, they have been exposed to aspects of theory which may or may not, in the long run, be useful to them but which they have at least been able to confront in some mild way.
Language: en |