OSPA
104 Mill Street Suite F
Gahanna OH 43230
Tel: 614.414.5980
Fax: 614.414.5982
Email: mail@OSPAonline.org

Mission Statement:

To facilitate student and staff psychological well being, in order to enable schools to resume normal activities after a crisis, which would maximize educational performance.

The OSPA Crisis Committee would like to assist school psychologists in their response to students and families in crisis situations by:

1. Gathering information about crisis prevention, intervention, and postvention and making this information available to OSPA members.
2. Providing a supportive network of professionals to increase knowledge and skills in crisis situations.
3. Increasing collaborative involvement in regional / state teams in preparation for possible response to a region / state crisis.
4. To provide on-sight crisis assistance.

Training Presentations and Resources
The following are presentations that can be used for trainings within individual departments, buildings, or districts. The OSPA Crisis Committee has made these materials available free of charge to the public in order to promote the ability of children and youth to cope with traumatic or unsetting events. Materials may be reproduced or adapted without specific permission from the OSPA Crisis Committee. However, the integrity of the content must be maintained and the OSPA Crisis Committee must be given proper credit.

• Levels of a Crisis – Characteristics of different levels of a crisis are discussed with this handout.
• OSPA Crisis Committee Training - This was a presentation conducted on 5-5-2005, and is an overview
• General Crisis Reactions – Includes reactions to a crisis and stages of a crisis.
• Crisis Interventions – An overview on possible intervention ideas.
• Building Level Crisis Team - Includes tips on how to build a building level crisis team.
• District Level Crisis Team – Tips on how to build a district level crisis team.
• Debriefing Models – Includes crisis management in schools, as well as an overview of the Critical Incident Stress Management and NOVA models.
• Large Scale Crisis Management – Includes an overview of a community meeting, large scale NOVA model, and the Large Scale Crisis Management Briefing.
• Special Situations– Includes an overview of handling the media, death adjustment issues, suicide, terrorism, and crisis team burn-out.
• Crisis Kit Resource Checklist – Provides a list of items you might want to include in a district crisis resource kit.

Links

• National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) – Useful handouts and resources for School Psychologists, teachers, and parents. There is also a direct link to the NASP/NEAT Team here.
• National Organization of Victim Assistance – Great resource for victims of crime or crisis.
• Federal Emergency Management Agency – Resources and tips for students and adults. FEMA also offers self-guided training opportunities that lead to FEMA certification in a number of areas.
• International Critical Incident Stress Foundation – Provides information on Critical Incident Stress Debriefing.
• UCLA Center for Mental Health in the Schools – Good resources for responding to the mental health needs of students in schools, including responding to a crisis.

Contacts

For further information or resources, please contact one of the resources below:

OSPA Crisis Committee Chair – Brian Hill
crisis@ospaonline.org