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Psychological First Aid is based on an understanding that disaster survivors and others affected by such events will experience a broad range of early reactions (physical, psychological, behavioral, spiritual).
Some of these reactions will cause enough distress to interfere with adaptive coping, and recovery may be helped by support from compassionate and caring disaster responders.
In the last 10 years the psychological damage left in the wake of tsunamis, earthquakes, droughts and conflicts has proven as devastating as the physical damage.
Many families were torn apart in this process.
Parents lost their children and children lost their parents.
A man had to witness with his own eyes his two daughters and wife to be swept away by the tsunami in Thailand.
He tried to save his younger daughter but she was too exhausted to hold any longer on to his neck.
As he turned around, she was already gone.
He barely made it out alive.
In such a situation people need a lot of attention, for many of them see no more meaning in life and are acutely suicidal.
Like the first aid for physical injuries, the PFA aims to treat severe psychological injuries before they cause permanent damage.
The PFA is at the same time a kind of a instruction for workers who provide psychological assistance.
The instruction contains the basic objectives and behavioral rules for professional delivering of psychological help.
Those are:
- Establish a human connection in a non-intrusive, compassionate manner.
- Enhance immediate and ongoing safety, and provide physical and emotional comfort.
- Calm and orient emotionally overwhelmed and distraught survivors.
- Offer practical assistance and information to help survivors address their immediate needs and concerns.
- Connect survivors as soon as possible to social support networks, including family members, friends, neighbors, and community helping resources.
- Support adaptive coping, achknowledge coping efforts and strenghts, and empower survivors.
- Provide information that may help suvivors cope effectively with the psychological impact of disaster.
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