Psychosocial intervention has become a valued dimension of immediate and long-term disaster response all over the world. Psychological recovery is recognized as a focus for relief & rehabilitation efforts, along with repairing homes and rebuilding bridges. As public mental health services are primarily limited to serving those with serious and persistent mental illnesses, and the affected survivors requiring attention far outnumbered the available mental health personnel, there is a need to train people in dealing with the general population who were struggling to cope with loss, disruption, and tragedy.
Working with survivors following the loss of loved ones, homes, property or community requires special skills and specific training on disaster and psychosocial issues. Besides meeting the basic needs of the affected individuals, the relief & rehabilitation workers need to understand the grieving process, which may extend for a prolonged period of time. Also counseling of disaster survivors may require to be undertaken in informal settings. A supportive conversation with survivor in a field visit or at a parent-teacher meeting could turn into a counseling session.
This training workshop module intended as a guide to train people in how to respond to the psychosocial effects of disasters. It aims to help psycho-social program administrators and trainers to give training to their staff in understanding how disasters affect children and adults, how people cope with the emotional effects of disasters and how one can facilitate community's natural recovery process. It also aims to equip them with basics of psychosocial intervention and communication skills aimed at reducing distress, improving adaptive functioning in the face of the practical and emotional demands created by the disaster, and preventing longer-term disability. It is intended for use by master trainer who can further train teachers, social workers, NGO staff, mentors, community health providers disaster relief workers, community leaders, and governmental and organizational officials concerned with responses to disasters and even by mental health workers e.g., psychiatrists, psychologists, other counselors.
On completing the training the trainees will be able:
-
to provide basic psychosocial support to survivors.
-
to help parents, teachers, caregivers (those who are in direct contact with children) to provide psychosocial support to these children.
-
to have knowledge of stress responses to earthquake and the process of grief following the human and material losses.
-
to identify those people who require referral for specialist assistance.
-
to educate the community about psychosocial issues.
-
to manage their stress and burn out.
The module does not address intensive treatment of established post traumatic stress disorder, depression, and other long term emotional consequences of disasters, which requires more extensive training and/or long term organization of mental health services.
©International Save the Children Alliance