How to Work With a Family in Crisis
Dealing with a crisis can cause unbearable pain and test the strength and resolve of a family. A variety of crises can affect a family, including those serious enough to require outside assistance; financial crises can be particularly stressful for families. Helping a family overcome a crisis requires some leadership skills and an ability to act fast and create solutions in the face of adversity. Whether you're a social worker, employer, friend, financial expert or co-worker, you can work with a family in crisis to create workable solutions for financial problems.
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Instructions
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Broach the crisis with sensitivity and respect. Start each conversation by expressing your deepest sympathy and support for the family's crisis. Explain that you are available for assistance and want to help the family through its crisis.
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Create a safe and supportive environment by discouraging the use of inflammatory language. Ask that everyone remain calm and reduce stress by talking one at time and listening when someone else is speaking.
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Identify the catalyst for the crisis. In other words, find out the central issue causing the family pain. Chronic sickness, mounting debt and sudden job loss are examples of events that can cause financial crisis.
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Develop and implement a workable plan of action. Identify available resources, such as debt management classes, for a family in financial crisis. Help the family take action by assigning tasks. For example, ask one adult family member to contact creditors and request payment extensions to avoid late fees. Ask another to organize the family's credit card statements, so the sum total of debt owed can be calculated. Assure the family that solutions are available.
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Encourage the family to write out its plan of action so everyone is clear on the family's current tasks. For example, encourage a spouse who is unemployed to commit on paper to searching for a job and contacting employers about employment.
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Explain the importance of goal setting, which, according to the Mind Your Finances website, can be broken down into long-term goals spanning five years or more, intermediate-term goals aimed at one to five years, and short-term goals to be accomplished within one year. "Clear 30 percent of credit card debt by 2013 based on monthly payments of $100" is an example of an intermediate-term goal.
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Tips & Warnings
Encourage everyone to remain positive.
A family in crisis should request written notices for any verbal promises made by a creditor or collection agency, which is useful in the event of a dispute.
Write out a contact list of resources for the family.
As stress and feelings of hopelessness can run high when a family is in crisis, be prepared to diffuse arguments; discourage the use of inflammatory language and encourage a total commitment to finding workable solutions to the family's crisis.
