Psychological First Aid (PFA) is the first response offered to the survivors of a disaster at the scene of crime by trained first responders to help the survivors to stabilize, get to safety and get further medical attention if need be and other resources (The National Child Traumatic Stress Network 2021). PFA only helps in assessing the immediate needs and of disaster survivors. After long term exposure to disaster, first responders can also be the receivers of the PFA services to help the team to deal with the psychological trauma.
Marks of an excellent mental health professional
First, the patient has their rights and should be respected at all times. The patients’ desires and needs have to be observed and followed. Secondly, some patients do not feel the need to have a PFA and therefore an excellent mental professional will assure the patient of their decision and remind them that they are welcome to seek help in the future if needed. However, if the patients state is critical, an excellent mental health professional will find a way to sooth the patient into agreeing to PFA help. Additionally, a good mark for an excellent mental health professional is that they do not seek for any monetary compensations and favors from the survivors.
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Important Actions Taken by mental health workers
The most important things actions a mental health worker should do in a disaster intervention include rapid assessment of mental health resources available , providing health care, providing targeted mental health interventions to the needy survivors, promoting coping and resilience, and educating the victims and volunteers about the mental health dos and do nots during the recovery period. ( Predmore et al., 2017 ). An immediate action in assessing the mental health surveillance of the community enables the health professionals to determine factors that are vital in administering help. First, understanding the magnitude of the psychological impact of the disaster to determine the kind of help required for each victim. Second, determining the available mental health resources in the affected area helps the health professionals determine who to help and who to refer to other facilities for further help after assessing each patient.
Most importantly, the health professional needs to understand the cultural, social and religious perspectives of the affected community in order to help them accordingly (Duggan, 2020). In promoting coping and resilience, the professionals give the community the hope they need to successfully go through recovery. In every disaster occurrence, there are misconceptions of what and what should not be done by either the victims or the volunteers. It is the role of mental health workers to educate the community and the volunteers about the mental health do’s and do not’s during the rescue and recovery period. The practice helps to make sure that correct and factual information is deployed and the community is equipped with the right knowledge to help deal and heal from the disaster.
Most important concepts learned from YouTube and the websites.
The most important concepts learned from the Youtube videos and websites provided are that children also experience different types of trauma from disasters and therefore parents and teachers need to learn how to handle such situations. Second, PFA does not necessarily have to be administered by medical professionals as other people can be trained and certified to administer the same. Additionally, the Bermuda triangle of healthcare is where the largest share of mistakes and oversights occur putting most patients at risk. Therefore, health workers and caregivers have to have clear communication during handover to make sure the patient is not harmed further (Daley & Amp, 2018). Lastly, sometimes death of family and friends is inevitable after a disaster and therefore the community needs to psychologically prepare for the loss and how to deal with it in case it happens.
References
Daley J.M & Amp (2018). The Bermuda Triangle of Care Coordination: Medical, Psychiatric, and Substance Use Disorders, the Magazine for Addiction Professionals
Duggan S.K (2020) Interdisciplinary Teams, Supervision and Consulting, by Duggan, from Counseling Today
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (2021). Psychological First Aid (PFA) and Skills for Psychological Recovery (SPR), retrieved from https://learn.nctsn.org/course/index.php?categoryid=11
Predmore, Z., Ramchand, R., Ayer, L., Kotzias, V., Engel, C., Ebener, P., ... & Haas, G. L. (2017). Expanding suicide crisis services to text and chat. Crisis.
