Emergency Procedures & Response Flashcards
7 cards from real ACT practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Emergency Procedures & Response flashcards as text
During an ACT session, a client discloses they have a specific plan to end their life tonight. What is the therapist's FIRST priority?
Answer: Ensure the client's immediate physical safety and assess access to means
Immediate safety and means restriction take precedence over therapeutic techniques when there is imminent suicide risk.
An ACT practitioner receives a call from a client's family member stating the client has not been seen in 48 hours after expressing hopelessness. The appropriate response is to:
Answer: Conduct a wellness check by contacting emergency services if the client cannot be reached
When a client is unreachable and risk indicators are present, initiating a welfare check via emergency services is the appropriate duty-of-care response.
Which element is MOST critical to include in a collaborative safety plan developed within an ACT framework?
Answer: Specific coping strategies, support contacts, and steps to reduce access to lethal means
Effective safety plans include warning signs, coping strategies, social supports, professional contacts, and means restriction.
A client in an ACT session becomes acutely dissociative and unresponsive to verbal prompts. The practitioner should:
Answer: Use grounding techniques (e.g., 5-4-3-2-1) and if unresponsive, call emergency services
Acute dissociation unresponsive to grounding may indicate a medical emergency requiring professional emergency intervention.
Under HIPAA's emergency exception, a therapist MAY disclose protected health information without client consent when:
Answer: Disclosure is necessary to prevent serious and imminent threat to the client or others
HIPAA permits disclosure to prevent serious and imminent threat to health or safety under its safety exception.
In ACT-informed crisis intervention, the concept of 'defusion' is applied to suicidal ideation by helping the client:
Answer: Observe suicidal thoughts as mental events rather than literal commands requiring action
Cognitive defusion in ACT teaches clients to notice thoughts without fusing with them or treating them as directives for action.
A client threatens to physically harm a specific named third party. The Tarasoff duty to protect most commonly requires the therapist to:
Answer: Warn the potential victim and/or notify law enforcement
The Tarasoff ruling established a duty to warn an identifiable potential victim and/or notify law enforcement when a credible threat exists.