Crisis Management

Meet Dr Ashton –

He’s going to be your guide to crisis management.

Dr Ashton is going to take you through the crisis management process using the example of the Pavey family. They feel like they’re always getting into crises. They’ve learned to deal with them quite well, and for the most part life is getting back to normal. Dr Ashton, however, is full of top tips on how they can further reduce the number and impact of crises.

The Important Steps Are…

• Predicting

• Preventing

• Planning

• Managing

• Learning

First, let’s meet the Pavey family. Then we can see how they work through these steps to manage a crisis.

Jez Pavey lives at home with his mum Joan, grandad Roy and sister Suzi. Jez has been unwell for about 2 years now and has been told by his psychiatrist that he has Schizoaffective Disorder.

This means that when he first became psychotic, and on several occasions when he has “relapsed” he has become “manic” – overexcited, quarrelsome, impulsive and sleeping hardly at all. The first time he was ill he took Roy’s car without permission and drove to London to try to find an ex-girlfriend who had ended their relationship months before. He was brought back by the police and Roy had to arrange for the car to be recovered.

Jez doesn’t really like taking medication as he feels it interferes with his lifestyle. He likes to go out to parties and to clubs at the weekend. On at least 2 occasions, he has had mini relapses after stopping taking medication. Once, he was brought home by the police and “dumped” in the hallway of the house. The police just thought that he was drunk or had been taking drugs. Jez had lost all his money and credit cards.

On that occasion, he kept the whole family up all bank holiday weekend pacing about the house, demanding cigarettes and rowing with Suzi who kept calling him ‘stupid’ and ‘selfish’. It took until the Tuesday to get Jez’s nurse to arrange more medication, as Jez had flushed it all down the toilet.

The next occasion was even worse. Jez came home from the pub drunk and decided that he wanted to go to London again. He found the car keys and had a massive fight with Roy who managed to get them back. Eventually, Jez stormed out of the house and wasn’t seen for days.#

Joan tried phoning the crisis team but they said they couldn’t do anything unless they knew where Jez was. When he turned up back at the house he was so unwell he had to go to hospital again for a few weeks.

Mum and Roy try to discuss with Jez about his medication and his drinking but this usually ends up in arguments.

Watch Helen discuss managing a crisis from a wife’s perspective

Watch Abtin discuss managing a crisis from a brother’s perspective