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Approaching Complex Cases With a Crisis Intervention Model and Teamwork
Author(s) -
O'Daniel Julianne M.,
Wells Deborah
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of genetic counseling
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.867
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1573-3599
pISSN - 1059-7700
DOI - 10.1023/a:1016885413679
Subject(s) - genetic counseling , psychosocial , crisis intervention , intervention (counseling) , teamwork , feeling , coping (psychology) , medicine , genetic testing , psychology , psychotherapist , nursing , social psychology , political science , genetics , law , biology
Patients referred for genetic counseling may be in a state of crisis, feeling as though they are incapable of making decisions about the management of their pregnancy, genetic testing options and/or life planning issues. The role of the genetic counselor is to assist a patient through this crisis state by increasing the patient's understanding and by helping to facilitate decision making and adjustment to those decisions. In this paper we present a clinical genetic counseling case that was complicated by numerous medical and psychosocial issues. The wide scope of this case required the involvement of both a prenatal and a medical genetic counselor. Working as a team we utilized a crisis intervention model. Our counseling focused on identifying and isolating the issues, providing factual information, setting a time frame for decisions to be made, and encouraging social support and emotion‐focused coping strategies.