A Guide to Psychological First Aid For Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies A Guide to Psychological First Aid For Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies A Guide to Psychological First Aid for Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support Blegdamsvej 27 DK-2100 Copenhagen Denmark Phone: +45 35 25 92 00 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.pscentre.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/Psychosocial.Center Twitter: @IFRC_PS_Centre Psychological First Aid for Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies was developed by the IFRC Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support. It comprises: • A Guide to Psychological First Aid for Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies • A Short Introduction to Psychological First Aid for Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies • Training in Psychological First Aid for Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies: · Module 1. An introduction to PFA (4 to 5 hours) · Module 2. Basic PFA (8 to 9 hours) · Module 3. PFA for Children (8 to 9 hours) · Module 4: PFA in Groups – Support to teams (21 hours – three days) Editors-in-chief: Louise Vinther-Larsen and Nana Wiedemann Author: Pernille Hansen Additional support: Wendy Ager, Louise Juul Hansen, Mette Munk Reviewers: Wendy Ager, Ea Suzanne Akasha, Cecilie Alessandri, Eliza Cheung, Ziga Friberg, Ferdinand Garoff, Louise Juul Hansen, Sarah Harrison, Sara Hedrenius, Elfa Dögg S. Leifsdóttir, Maureen Mooney, Stephen Regel, Gurvinder Singh. We are grateful to the Hong Kong Red Cross Branch of the Red Cross Society of China for their generous support in organizing the pilot trainings and for their input and feedback on the trainings and on the written materials. We would also like to thank the participants of the pilot training of Module 4: PFA in Groups – Support to teams in Copenhagen, October 2018. We would like to thank Icelandic Red Cross and DANIDA for their funding and support in developing these materials. Production: Pernille Hansen Design: Michael Mossefin/Paramedia/12007 Front page photo: Yoshi Shimizu Print: KLS PurePrint, Hvidovre, Denmark ISBN: 978-87-92490-53-7 (print), 978-87-92490-53-7 (online) Suggested citation: A Guide to Psychological First Aid for Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, IFRC Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support, Copenhagen, 2018. Please contact the IFRC Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support if you wish to translate, or adapt any part of Psycho- logical First Aid for the Red Cross Red Crescent Societies. We welcome your comments, suggestions and feedback at: [email protected] The IFRC Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support is hosted and supported by Danish Red Cross © International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support 2018 Foreword Anyone can find themselves in a situation in which they encounter a person in distress who needs their emotional and practical support – psychological first aid (PFA). Crises happen all the time. Sometimes they are small and personal in nature, affecting only one person. At other times, they are larger and adversely affect huge numbers of people. No matter the scale, people caught up in a crisis may need psychological first aid. As Red Cross and Red Crescent staff and volunteers and humanitarian workers, the nature of our work dictates that we are likely to meet people in distress on an everyday basis. Psychological first aid is a simple, yet powerful way of helping someone in distress. It is a form of helping that involves paying attention to the person’s reactions, active listening and if relevant, practical assistance to help address immediate problems and basic needs. Learning PFA skills and understanding reactions to crises empowers the helper not only to help others, but also to apply the same skills to their own crises. Although a vast amount of training and reference material on PFA already exists, there was a specific need to develop materials adapted to the requirements and specific contexts of Red Cross and Red Crescent staff and volunteers, who work in their own communities in both emergency and non-emergency, or long-term settings. The materials developed include this guide to PFA for Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, a small introductory booklet and four training modules. The first two training modules cover basic PFA skills, the third is on PFA for children and the fourth on providing PFA in groups. The fourth training module responds to a need for more training and guidance on how to provide care and support to Red Cross and Red Crescent staff and volunteers. We very much hope that the range of materials provided in Psychological First Aid for Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies will support staff and volunteers in their primary work of helping beneficiaries. Our goal in this endeavour is as always to assist National Societies in offering the most effective psychosocial support possible to the people they serve. Nana Wiedemann Head of IFRC Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support CONTENTS Introduction .......................................................................................................................10 What is PFA? ....................................................................................................................... 13 Why do we provide PFA? ...................................................................................................15 Crises and reactions ............................................................................................................16 Different kinds of crises ......................................................................................................17 Reactions to crises ..............................................................................................................21 Providing psychological first aid ..........................................................................................26 Who can provide PFA? ........................................................................................................27 Who needs PFA? .................................................................................................................27 Where can you provide PFA? .............................................................................................27 When do you provide PFA? ................................................................................................28 Preparing to provide PFA ....................................................................................................28 Look, Listen and Link ................................................................................................................29 Look .................................................................................................................................... 30 Listen .................................................................................................................................. 32 Link ..................................................................................................................................... 37 Making referrals ..................................................................................................................40 Complex reactions and situations .......................................................................................43 Complex reactions ..............................................................................................................44 Complex situations .............................................................................................................49 Children..............................................................................................................................51 Children’s understanding of and reactions to crises ...........................................................53 Activities to support children..............................................................................................56 Helping children in distress – PFA for children ...................................................................58 Children’s complex reactions and situations ......................................................................62 Helping parents and caregivers to support their children ..................................................64 PFA in groups – support to teams .......................................................................................65 Look, Listen and Link for PFA in groups ..............................................................................67 When is PFA in groups needed? .........................................................................................68 Why provide PFA in groups? ...............................................................................................68 Preparing for a PFA and support meeting ...........................................................................68 What happens in a PFA and support meeting? ..................................................................70 Challenges in group settings ...............................................................................................76 Supervision and self-care ....................................................................................................78 PFA helpers ........................................................................................................................79 Characteristics of PFA helpers .............................................................................................80