Hesperian Health Guides
Helping someone in crisis
HealthWiki > Promoting Community Mental Health > Chapter 4: People in crisis > Helping someone in crisis
This page was updated:18 Apr 2025
HealthWiki > Promoting Community Mental Health > Chapter 4: People in crisis > Helping someone in crisis
A woman was standing on the sidewalk of a busy city street screaming, âFire! Fire!â and pointing in front of herâwhere there was no fire. A well-meaning passerby approached the woman, gently touched her back, and said: âCalm down. There is no fire. You are perfectly safe.â The frightened woman bolted into traffic. Fortunately, she was not hit by a car.
The woman was having a psychotic experience. The danger she felt was real, although the fire was not. Without meaning to, the passerby who wanted to calm her instead increased her feelings of danger. This was made worse by:
It might have been more helpful to ask the woman calmly, from a distance, if there was a way to help. Also, it may have been possible to make the area around her safer, perhaps by directing people walking nearby to give her plenty of room. The rest of this chapter has suggestions for communicating with someone in a mental health crisis and other ways to help calm a situation.
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