Healing Magazine; Fall/Winter 1998 Article: "Life Space Crisis Intervention: new Skills for reclaiming students showing patterns of self-defeating behavior" By: Nicholas J. Long, Ph.D., Frank A. Fecser, Ph.D., LLPC, and Larry K. Brendtro,Ph.D. pp2-24

This article provides an in-depth review of a crisis intervention program called Life Space Crisis Intervention.

Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) is based on research conducted in the 1950s by Redl and Wineman who studied delinquents classified as disturbed and violent.

LSCI is a program of crisis intervention designed for school personnel dealing with disturbed and often explosive and violent students. The LSCI program philosophy is based on the premis that a crisis is not a disaster but rather an opportunity for growth,learning,and change. It provides school staff with the competencies to successfully and effectively manage student conflict and crisis.

Staff are trained to effectively intervene with a student's self-defeating behaviors without using isolation and exclusion. It is intervention minus the outcome of punishment or expulsion for the student.

The current and popular methods for dealing with disruptive and acting out students call for what the authors describe as criminalizing the actions of the student. Students who are emotionallhy or behaviorally disabled however rarely benefit from either punishment or expulsion. These are the kids most likely to be sspended or expelled and become the dropouts or pushouts from the educational system. The authors claim that these students fail to graduate at a higher rate than any other disability group. The authors point out that when all interventions fail, it makes sense to discard the intervention and not the student.

Rather than using coercion or exclusion, the LSCI model is a relationship-based intervention. A trained staff member becomes the student's life skills coach. This is the staff who will be with the student during times of crisis. The authors state that children are programmed to reach out to others during times of crisis and it is the current models of intervention that go against the natural needs of the child by isolating them during their time of greatest need for human contact. The authors further claim that by isolating the student, they are more apt to downplay in their own minds, the seriousness of their behavior. By maintaining contact with another, they can not deny what took place during their erruption or crisis.

The LSCI model is designed for specific students who show patterns of self-defeating behaviors. The student is guided to change their behavior as well as to "understand and take responsibility for their behavior rather than being coerced into superficial behavioral compliance."

The authors claim that the LSCI model has been effective in turning around the behavior of some extremely disturbed and violent youth while maintaining them in the school enviroment. The zero tolerence policy of schools is replaced with a "zero reject" policy meaning that all students are entitled to an appropriate education. The LSCI model holds kids accountable without allowing staff to give up on the more difficult kids.

This article did not address the needs of other students who are witness to explosive and violent behaviors of the kids in crisis. It was not clear where the intervention takes place. In the classroom,an office,hallway, or where? The school certainly has a responsibility to see to the safety of other students and staff. Also, witnessing violent or disruptive behavior can have a significant impact on the bystanders. I would have liked to have had this issue addressed.

I do agree with the authors that the current interventions are ineffective for a large number of kids. These are the same kids who at age 3 or 4 were in all liklihood coming to the attention of child protective services. This would be the time for effective interventions before any additional and possibly irreversible damage has been done. Adults are not as likely to give up on the 3 or 4 year old as they are on the 13 or 14 year old. This article does give me hope that there might be promise for these kids that some have already written off as untreatable. It is also interesting to me that once again it is up to the schools to make a difference. This is an area I might continue to explore for future assignments in this category.

-- Anonymous, December 02, 1998

Answers

Marcia, I thought your presentation to our Cohort was great. You have a very tough job. You showed that you care very deeply for the people you are working with. And that it is important for teachers and social services to be working together so that these children and their families can be helped. I agree with your article that disruptive and acting out students need a relationship-based intervention with a trained adults or peers. You brought up some good questions about the extremely violent child and his/her impact on the bystander children. I feel extremely violent or extremely disturbed children need this relationship-based intervention at a non school setting. I feel that the school setting is not the place where their needs can be met.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 1999