The suicide of a youth group member. The drowning of a teen on a summer missions trip. A school shooting. These are frightening scenarios that Christian school staff members and youth workers sometimes face. One of their biggest fears is facing a tragedy and not knowing what to do.
Most Christian school personnel receive inadequate instruction on what critical steps to take to prevent their school from being paralyzed by tragedy, and few youth workers receive the training needed to counsel their teens after a crisis. As a high school counselor, Sandy Austin has faced tragedy ranging from the shootings at Columbine High School to four suicides in eight months at the Colorado high school where she works. In times like theses, she understands how important it is to already have a crisis plan in place in order to minimize the panic or chaos that often occurs during and after a tragic situation.
In the
Crisis Manual for Christian Schools and Youth Workers, Austin uses her experience and expertise to give youth workers step-by-step instruction on how to plan ahead and handle tragedy should the need arise. Have this peace of mind is highly important when it comes to dealing with the lives and well-being of young people.
Step-by-step processes include:
- Formulating a Crisis Team
- Prevention and intervention strategies
- Communication through the crisis
- Helping the families of impacted youth
- Conducting funerals and memorial services
- Debriefing
- Education regarding residual effects of the tragedy
