How do people react in a pandemic:

Is a very important piece of information, the one thing you need to know in order to provide psychogical first aid is how one reacts. If you don't know the signs the the giving of psychological first aid
won't help. You could mis-judge what one is feeling and give the wrong aid.

There are five principles to bulwark again denial. Denial can be a serious issue with people when there is an emergency. Because people don't believe what is happening or about to happen. An example
of such would be when Hurricane Katrina hit, not everyone fled the disaster
zone and many people were stuck in there homes when it hit. They had no food or
water and were stranded until the hurricane subsided and rescue teams went in.

Here are the five principles:

· Legitimize fear

· Keep people busy

· Give them things to decide

· Love

· Hate

Fear is a solution and not a problem in such situations as it helps people to take precautions, which then helps emergency teams. People need to take control of what happens to them in a disaster by
taking precautions without them in a pandemic there would be many more
casualties than necessary because of risks.

You never want to evoke panic in the public, only fear. If there is panic then there is chaos and chaos will only make the situation wose. Make sure you know all the stages of reaction to a disaster as
well:

· self preservation

· group preservation

· blame setting

· Justice seeking

· Renormalizing

I think that pychological first aid without knowing this is at a major loss. For without out it how can one truely help the people in need?

Spreading information without creating panic therefore is quite tricky. But first and foremost, never mention “panic”. Make sure the public knows what’s going on in a calm way.
Notify the public of the danger and make sure they know the steps they need to
take. By giving them information in a calm and ordered way you give them reason
not to panic. As long as the information is sound and the steps for the public
to proceed are well thought out. Even when there is uncertainty on many issues
there shouldn’t be panic.

I think I’ve already delivered psychological first aid without even knowing it. When my town flooded in 2008 me and my family had to move my grandpa out of the flood zone. We
calmly proceeded and packed everything he owned up and put it into storage. He
stayed there the wh*** time making sure we had everything and when we were
finished he wasn’t afraid. He knew he would have numerous places to stay if is
home flooded and all of his possessions were safe.

He never worried about anything and when the floodwaters receded we put everything back the way it was before it had happened. He never had to be worried about his things, or
a place to stay so he never panicked.