What are Some Strategies for Crisis Prevention?

Crisis prevention obstructs social crises such as domestic abuse, physical and sexual assaults, suicide, and violence in homes, schools and communities. Effective crisis prevention strategies both evaluate and help eliminate the potential for crises through education, communication, and social support. Some successful strategies for crisis prevention include recognizing the early warning signs of impending crises, promoting non-violent resolutions of all conflicts, and building supportive and communicative family and community relationships.

Parents who are involved in their children's lives and regularly communicate with their children are better able to be alert to changes that could signal a crisis situation. For example, if an outgoing child begins to become much more withdrawn or his or her school grades drop dramatically, these may be early warning signs of an impending crisis resulting from bullying, drug abuse, or other issues. Parents should foster a communicative relationship with their children so that the child feels free to discuss their views with parents on issues such as drug abuse, sex, and violence. Parents should guide children in tolerating differences in others as well as in developing empathy for others.

Meeting teachers and attending meetings and joining committees to discuss school safety and crisis prevention issues such as anti-bullying policies are great ways of connecting with and advocating for one's child. School counselors deal with behavioural concerns and help make students aware of diversity and respect issues. Crisis prevention programs in schools should deal with bullying and dating violence in early grades by teaching respect for another person's physical boundaries and safety.

Community based service organizations often offer crisis prevention programs such as discussion groups and counseling in issues such as anger management. Most communities also support victims of domestic abuse with access to shelters to escape the abuse. Domestic abuse is also called spouse abuse, battery, and family violence. It refers to any type of violence between ex-partners or current partners or to cases where a stalker thinks of his or her relationship with the victim as an intimate one even when it is not. Violence can be physical, sexual, mental, or emotional in nature.

Community crime prevention strategies have been shown to make a difference in crisis prevention. Community policing and monitoring help make communities safer places to live as well as create an awareness of problems in a community. Community members, when they are aware of problems in their communities, often write letters about crisis prevention to local politicians and editorials to local newspapers, inspiring others to get involved further in making crisis prevention policy decisions.