School Crisis Intervention: An Essential Guide for Practitioners

Providing vital tools to enhance preparedness in any school setting (K-12), this book is grounded in state-of-the-art research and real-world experience. Foremost authority Scott Poland and frontline clinician Sara Ferguson address all aspects of team-based crisis intervention and postvention. With a key focus on prevention, the book describes ways to identify risk factors and enhance students’ mental health, connectedness, and resilience. Best practices are outlined for responding effectively to specific crises, including unexpected deaths in the school community, youth suicide, school violence, and natural disasters. In a convenient large-size format, the book includes firsthand perspectives from other experts in the field, hands-on strategies to support daily practice, and 23 reproducible forms that can be downloaded and printed.

This book is in The Guilford Practical Intervention in the Schools Series, edited by Sandra M. Chafouleas.

Scott Poland, EdD, is Professor in the College of Psychology and Director of the Suicide and Violence Prevention Office at Nova Southeastern University. Dr. Poland has served as president of National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and was the first chairperson of the NASP National Emergency Assistance Team, serving for 14 years. He is a nationally recognized expert on school crisis, youth violence, suicide intervention, school safety, threat assessment, and the delivery of psychological services in schools. Dr. Poland has personally responded to or consulted after hundreds of school crises and has led over 1,000 workshops worldwide. He has published numerous articles, book chapters, and books on crisis intervention.

Sara Ferguson, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist who provides psychotherapy and psychological assessment services to at-risk youth in a South Florida private practice. Dr. Ferguson leads suicide and violence prevention training workshops in school settings and has extensive clinical experience working with at-risk youth. She has also worked in trauma-specific clinics, providing individual psychotherapy services for individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder. Dr. Ferguson has coauthored a number of research publications on such topics as youth suicide and violence prevention, juvenile offending, school shootings, and the neuropsychology of crime.