On November 4,1979, Iranian terrorists took 53 Americans hostage at the embassy in Tehran and set into motion a national crisis — not only for the individual hostages and their families, but also for the staffs of the governmental agencies involved in the release negotiations. The incarceration of the Americans in Iran for 444 days will clearly be considered a critical life event of significant magnitude for both the returned hostages and for their families. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to describe the Task Force on Families of Catastrophe and its role in the Iranian crisis; and second, to identify ways in which nurses can be effective in dealing with victims and families caught in political and social upheaval. It will be useful here to briefly review crisis intervention theory.
Book Review: Crisis Intervention: Theory and Methodology