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Crisis worker skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
3 min read
Quoted experts
Dr. Susan Snyder Ph.D.,
Dr. Dianna Cooper
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical crisis worker skills. We ranked the top skills for crisis workers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 20.9% of crisis worker resumes contained patients as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a crisis worker needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 crisis worker skills for your resume and career

1. Patients

Here's how crisis workers use patients:
  • Conducted psychiatric screenings in hospital settings to determine if patients met the criteria for involuntary/voluntary commitment as mandated by state laws.
  • Provided linkage referrals and facilitated procedures to link patients seen in crisis triage with community mental health providers and organizations.

2. Social Work

Here's how crisis workers use social work:
  • Manage social work responsibilities, educate hospital staff and administration about psychopathology and interventions.
  • Provide Mental Health Training for MPS principle, administrators, school psychologist, school social worker and teaching staff.

3. Mental Health Crisis

Here's how crisis workers use mental health crisis:
  • Used communication and interviewing skills, identified individuals presenting in a mental health crisis, facilitated appropriate intervention.
  • Provide face-to-face crisis assessment services to individuals experiencing an emotional, substance abuse or mental health crisis.

4. Compassion

Here's how crisis workers use compassion:
  • Provided medical, spiritual/emotional care, encompassing quality, dignity, compassion and confidentiality.
  • Show compassion and empathy to an ethnically diverse population.

5. CPR

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR is a medical procedure that involves chest compression to help a patient breathe. This artificial ventilation helps in keeping the brain function in place and regulates blood throughout the body. CPR is a lifesaving procedure that is used in emergencies.

Here's how crisis workers use cpr:
  • Provided health and safety interventions through the administration of medications, First Aid, CPR, Crisis and behavioral Interventions.
  • Provide emergency response including crisis management, first aid, and CPR and fire response as needed.

6. Rehabilitation

Here's how crisis workers use rehabilitation:
  • Provided coordination for client's requesting substance abuse assistance through detoxification or rehabilitation through medical facilities.
  • Provided resources to clients in need of shelter, medical assistance, rehabilitation, and food.

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7. Crisis Line

Here's how crisis workers use crisis line:
  • Received and handled crisis calls for the crisis line by offering information and providing counseling and support to callers.
  • Managed crisis line and provided individual support to women in a domestic violence shelter house.

8. Mental Illness

Here's how crisis workers use mental illness:
  • Provide intensive crisis stabilization services to individuals with severe and disabling mental illness in a community setting.
  • Educate clients about mental illness and its management behaviorally and with medication compliance.

9. Community Agencies

Community agencies stand for the organizations operated to provide human service in the community.

Here's how crisis workers use community agencies:
  • Consult with psychiatric hospitals and community agencies regarding consumers in crisis.
  • Provide consultation to other agency programs and community agencies.

10. Suicide Prevention

Suicide prevention is a collective effort focused on mental health to reduce the risk of suicide. Suicide prevention efforts can be carried out at an individual, community, society, or relationship level. It aims to enhance the mental and psychological health of an individual to remove suicidal thoughts or tendecies.

Here's how crisis workers use suicide prevention:
  • Provided services including suicide prevention, crisis counseling, and community referrals.
  • Provided remote counseling, including suicide prevention by telephone.

11. Emergency Room

Here's how crisis workers use emergency room:
  • Interfaced with staff psychiatrists as needed to obtain clinical documentation of emergency room presentation for crisis triage services.
  • Provide direct care; emergency room intake screenings; group facilitation; and counseling on adult/adolescent psychiatric unit

12. Mental Health Assessments

Here's how crisis workers use mental health assessments:
  • Provide crisis mental health assessments at the request of local law enforcement and hospitals.
  • Assist in mental health assessments.

13. Psychiatric Crisis

Here's how crisis workers use psychiatric crisis:
  • Provided initial assessment and de-escalation to clients in psychiatric crisis.
  • Assess psychiatric crisis seeking least restrictive disposition that will assure client safety.

14. Crisis Calls

Here's how crisis workers use crisis calls:
  • Respond to crisis calls for children ages 3-17 and their families or guardians, from seventeen towns in CT.
  • Responded to crisis calls in various settings to ensure the physical and emotional well-being for consumers involved.

15. Social Services

Here's how crisis workers use social services:
  • Provide on-the-spot crisis counseling and offer advocacy services for victims, such as helping people obtain social services or basic needs.
  • Perform consults for domestic abuse, sexual assaults, substance abuse, and other social services in the Emergency Department.
top-skills

What skills help Crisis Workers find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on crisis worker resumes?

Dr. Susan Snyder Ph.D.Dr. Susan Snyder Ph.D. LinkedIn profile

Associate Professor, Georgia State University

Being able to clearly demonstrate experience is helpful. Students should not include passive activities, like attending meetings, or menial tasks, like making copies, but skills that show what they are qualified to do. Good activities could be community organizing, event planning, grant writing, program evaluation, or facilitating groups. Additionally, students who demonstrate strong written and verbal communication skills, including social media skills, tend to do well. Working collaboratively, including across organizations, is important for a lot of different positions our students seek. If students' resumes show that they can also analyze data, they can have even more options.

What soft skills should all crisis workers possess?

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Associate Professor, Campbellsville University

The "change theory" used in social work practice follows several steps, including engaging, assessing, planning, intervening, evaluating, terminating, and following up. Soft skills are most likely to occur in engagement, intervention, and termination. Social workers are trained to "start wherever the client is," understanding that clients can be individuals, families, groups, communities, or organizations. Social workers are trained to respect the client as the expert in their needs, honor self-determination, use a strengths-based approach, and respect difference while using inclusion. The training turns into soft skills such as being empathetic, warm, genuine, and respectful. Social workers also develop skills in knowing when to listen and when to nudge the client toward action. Social workers are trained to intervene and, when change is completed, to terminate. Helping clients know when to end services also requires soft skills of talking about hard topics, seeing a brighter future and setting goals, recognizing when change is happening, and saying goodbye respectfully.

What hard/technical skills are most important for crisis workers?

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Associate Professor, Campbellsville University

Hard or technical skills are most likely to occur in the stages of assessing, planning, intervening, and evaluating change theory. Social workers are trained to gather lots of information and then analyze strengths and needs. Social workers present their assessments to clients and work together to create goals and the steps that reach goals when executed. The process involves using the client's vision of what "better" looks like. Social workers then use evidence-based techniques to move the client toward the goal and define measures to know when the goal is met. The technical skills used in this process include analyzing many types of information repeatedly, knowing what resources exist and how to refer, knowing how to design effective goals and steps to achieve goals, researching current evidence-based practices, defining and measuring progress, and setting limits and timeframes.

What crisis worker skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Lillian Wichinsky Ph.D.

Associate Dean, University of Nevada - Reno

The need for social workers with expertise in mental health care, school-based social work, health and substance misuse are particularly important. Sixty percent of mental health care in the US is provided by social workers and the need is growing.

What type of skills will young crisis workers need?

Dr. Thomas Dearden Ph.D.Dr. Thomas Dearden Ph.D. LinkedIn profile

Assistant Professor of Sociology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Indeed, the way we work is changing. The skills that young graduates will need are diverse. Transferable skills and soft skills will certainly be marketable. These include traditional crafts such as communication, but I also think the world expects more empathy from its employees. Young graduates with an understanding of racism, sexism, and environmental responsibility will become increasingly important.

List of crisis worker skills to add to your resume

Crisis worker skills

The most important skills for a crisis worker resume and required skills for a crisis worker to have include:

  • Patients
  • Social Work
  • Mental Health Crisis
  • Compassion
  • CPR
  • Rehabilitation
  • Crisis Line
  • Mental Illness
  • Community Agencies
  • Suicide Prevention
  • Emergency Room
  • Mental Health Assessments
  • Psychiatric Crisis
  • Crisis Calls
  • Social Services
  • Mental Health
  • Emergency Services
  • Support Services
  • Safety Planning
  • Psychosis
  • Crisis Intervention
  • Discharge Planning
  • Direct Care
  • Law Enforcement
  • Substance Abuse Issues
  • Crisis Hotline
  • Hotline Calls
  • Emotional Support
  • Crisis Support
  • Outpatient Services
  • Crisis Situations
  • Stabilization Services
  • Child Abuse
  • Psychiatric Hospitalization
  • Risk Assessments
  • Sexual Assault
  • Crisis Assessment
  • Mental Health Issues
  • Suicidal Ideation
  • Crisis Management
  • Eating Disorders
  • Hippa
  • Local Hospitals
  • Provide Emotional Support
  • DCFS
  • Asist

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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