Pneumonic plague supporting staff and volunteers

1. Supporting volunteers and staff

2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants should be able to:
• understand causes of stress for volunteers and staff
• recognize signs of burnout
• be able to care for colleagues and for themselves

3. Stress at work
Group discussion:
• Think about situations where you or others
experienced stress over a sustained period
of time at work.
• What triggered the stress?
• How was it manifested?

4. Causes of helpers’ stress (1)
• Poor preparation and briefing
• Being a part of a collective crisis
• Prolonged exposure to a disaster situation
• Physically difficult, exhausting, and
dangerous tasks
• Lack of sleep and feeling chronically
fatigued
• Feeling inadequate in dealing with the task
• Facing moral and ethical dilemmas
• Feeling frustrated by policies / decisions of
superiors

5. Causes of helpers’ stress (2)
• Being detached from your support
system (home and family)
• Feeling unsupported at your work site
• Facing the perceived inability to never
do enough
• Being exposed to the anger / apparent
lack of gratitude
• Unclear, inadequate or inconsistent
supervision
• Feeling guilt over access to food,
shelter, and other resources

6. How to manage helpers’ stress (1)
• Guidance and support from team leaders
• Encourage and support your co-workers
• Respect confidentiality so that people can
feel safe admitting stress and seeking help.
• Openly talk and share your problems without
fearing the consequences

7. How to manage helpers’ stress (2)
• Emphasize self care
• Take a break when you feel your tolerance
diminishing
• Stay in touch with family and friends
• Defuse briefly whenever you experience
troubling incidents and after each work shift
• Create a peer support system for sharing
experiences

8. BURNOUT

9. Burnout
An emotional state due to long-term stress,
characterized by chronic emotional
exhaustion, depleted energy, impaired
enthusiasm and motivation to work,
diminished work efficiency, a diminished
sense of personal accomplishment and
pessimism and cynicism.

10. Benefits of supporting staff and
volunteers
Stress results in:
• decreased alertness
• performance
• poor judgement
• decreased efficiency
• has consequences on health
Stress equals time and money lost

11. Self care
“Put on your own oxygen mask
before helping others”

12. PRACTICE SELF CARE
• Before:
– Are you ready to help?
• During:
– How can you stay physically and emotionally
healthy?
– How can you support colleagues and they support
you?
• After:
– How can you take time to rest, recover and reflect?

13. Your reactions are normal (1)
• Talk to someone with whom you feel at
ease, describe your thoughts and feelings
• Listen to others and share insights with
them. What do they say and think about
the event?
• Take special care of yourself, eat well, limit
alcohol and tobacco and stay fit
• Avoid perfectionist expectations; they often
lead to disappointment and conflict

14. Your reactions are normal (2)
• Do not try to hide feelings
• Do not self-medicate
• Continue to work on routine tasks
• Look for a healthy outlet
• Go easy on yourself
• Seek professional advice

15. SEEK HELP WHEN YOU ….
• Have upsetting thoughts
or memories about the
intervention
• Feel very nervous or
extremely sad
• Have trouble sleeping
• Drink a lot of alcohol or
take drugs to cope with
your experience
• Consult a professional if
these difficulties persist
more than one month

16. PEER SUPPORT

17. What is peer support?
Teaming of peers into
supportive groups that pool
their knowledge, perspectives,
and experiences for the benefit
of each other
A group of peers can provide:
• An informal support group of
people who socialise both
during and after the work
• A formal framework to discuss
work and problem-solve
together

18. Principles of peer support
• Be available in a non-intrusive way
• Manage the situation and locate resources – find a quiet place
and locate relevant people that can help, e.g. family, friends,
medical help
• Provide information – one of the key elements of gaining control
is information about the situation
• Assist in establishing self control – treat the person as a
colleague or friend, not as a victim. Give encouragement – it is
important to encourage positive explanations although not
being unrealistic
• Maintain confidentiality – this is the cornerstone in all support
• Provide follow up in a non-intrusive way

19. Role Play
3 people in a group
A colleague of you has been working 7 days a week
for a month in responding to Pneumonic Plague.
He/she does not take rest and keeps working.
You find that person is getting more irritable
these days and work performance drops. How are
you going to support her/him?
a) colleague in distress
b) Helper (active listening and facilitation of
adoption of adaptive coping strategies)
c) Observer (observe and comment)

20. Role Play: Psychoeducation group
4-5 people in a group
You are a group of frontline workers for the
Pneumonic Plague outbreak. Team members
encounter a lot of survivors and distressed
individuals due to the Pneumonic Plague
outbreak. Being the team leader of the group, you
would like to provide some psychoeducation to
them and a chance for them to support each other
a) A team leader
b) A distressed worker who always drink alcohol and
late for work
c) Some supportive colleagues

21. Recap
• Summarize individually key points covered
and note down
• Divide into groups of four to five and agree
on the 3 most important messages of the
session
• Feedback in plenary