7. Psychological First Aid (PFA)
• Initial disaster response intervention
• Stabilize survivors of disasters
• Connect individuals to help and
resources
• Delivered by mental health
professionals and other first
responders.
8.
9. Goals of Psychological First Aid:
1) Safety
2) Calm & Comfort
3) Connectedness
4) Self-Empowerment, and
5) Hope
10. Purpose of Psychological First Aid
• Assess the immediate concerns and
needs
• To reduce stress symptoms
• Healthy recovery following a traumatic
event, natural disaster, public health
emergency, or even a personal crisis.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15. ⮚ The Check action in SFA involves increased
awareness about stress reactions in yourself and
your co workers in an ongoing way, whether
stressors at work or at home cause them.
⮚ The Check action often begins with awareness that
you or another individual has been exposed to
specific stressors.
⮚ The Check strategies include both those for self-care
and for checking on others.
Check
16. Examples of Check strategies to use when checking on others
include:
• Pick the right place and time to talk.
• Begin with a casual two-way communication to get someone
talking.
• Find the right way to check on someone without annoying
them (i.e., writing an email or texting versus calling or talking
in person).
• Check in on anniversaries or reminders of events that were
particularly hard.
17. • It involves getting any additional information
and assistance that might be needed.
• It also involves consulting with and
collaborating with others, or informing those
who need to know.
• Coordinate to an organization/person the as
most appropriate ways to refer for care or
inform others in your setting.
Coordinate
18. • Open a conversation
• Asks a simple question about the
impact on the person’s safety
• Knowing their preferences for
regaining a sense of safety.
Cover
19. Here are a few self-care Cover strategies, gathered from
people in high-stress jobs: (Teacher)
⮚Find those people, places, or actions that feel safe to you and
call on them when you need to feel more of a sense of safety.
⮚When you feel unsafe, distract yourself by focusing on
something near you or your own breath or thought (i.e.,
counting).
⮚ Realize that no one is perfect and everyone is going to have
strengths and vulnerabilities – be aware of your own.
20. • Reducing the intensity of
physiological, emotional, and
behavioral stress.
• Unlike in cover which is the focus
is safety, calming is more on
actions that may have no direct
connection with safety.
Calm
21. • It is about restoring or increasing
social support
• Asking for or providing support
Connect
22. ⮚ Open communication with co-workers
⮚ Electronic support, which is time limited and convenient
⮚ Staff downtime and support
⮚ Confidence in staff abilities from managers
Here are a few strategies for helping others connect,
gathered from people in high-stress jobs:
23. • It focuses on fostering and restoring a
stress-affected person’s capacity.
• Regaining strength and to function in
all his or her important life roles,
including occupational, personal, and
social domains.
Competence
24. • It involves promoting realistic hope and building
self-esteem that may have been damaged or lost
as a result of stress.
• Promoting confidence in core values and beliefs,
or bolstering pride and commitment.
Confidence
25. Tips for Implementing Each Element
of the PFA Model Use
The following 10 tips to support implementation
of the PFA model before, during, and after
emergency events. Share it with all school staff
members, including administrators, teachers,
paraprofessionals, and afterschool staff.
27. 2. Listen to Students/Learners:
All staff members should let students know
they are available to listen or willing to connect
students with the appropriate professional.
Encourage staff members to listen and observe
any changes in behavior or mood, school
performance and attendance, or interactions
with other students and staff.
28. 3. Protect Students/Learners:
Avoid the possibility of any re-traumatization
by freeing the environment of anything that
could re-traumatize individuals, such as
showing videos of similar tragedies or
speaking continuously about news stories
that contain repeated reminders of the
emergency event or disaster.
29. 4. Protect the School Culture:
To the best of your ability, limit unnecessary
changes in the school environment by
maintaining daily routines, activities, and
structure with clear and consistent
expectations and rules.
30. 5. Connect Policy to Practice:
Incorporate trauma-informed practices into
emergency policies and procedures to
address and mitigate the impact of traumatic
events on students and staff.
31. 6.Connect with the Whole School
Community:
Connect with community partners, including
local law enforcement, mental/behavioral
health professionals, and parents, to
continuously provide resources that are
supportive of a healthy school environment.
32. 7. Train administrators to model trauma-
informed behaviors when interacting with
staff:
Staff members will look for verbal and
nonverbal clues from administrators and other
leadership on how to best respond after an
emergency event.
33. 8. Teach staff to recognize signs of
student trauma:
Remind staff members that we all react
a little differently to stressful events,
and some coping strategies may be
more helpful than others.
