Crisis Model for Older Adults: Special Considerations for an Aging Population

As the U.S. population ages, counselors must begin structuring their interactions to meet the unique needs of older adults, especially in the area of crisis intervention. The purposes of this article are to draw attention to the rapidly growing, often disregarded older population and to introduce the Crisis Model for Older Adults (CM-OA), an intervention approach that takes into consideration some of the unique challenges and circumstances of older adults in the United States. The following sections of the article briefly highlight some of the theoretical foundations that informed the CM-OA, present the crisis intervention model itself, and apply the model in a case illustration.