Psychological First Aid (PFA)
By Prof. Dr. Shishir Subba
What is Psychological First Aid?
Psychological First Aid (PFA) is an approach to helping people affected by an emergency, disaster or traumatic event (APS, 2013). It describes a humane, supportive response to a fellow human being who is suffering and who may need support (Sphere, 2011; IASC, 2011). It is supported by disaster mental health expert immediately after of disaster. The intervention is designed to reduce initial distress caused by traumatic events by providing psychosocial care and support in which they focus on adjustment and coping.
PFA involves the following themes (WHO, 2011):
- Providing practical care and support, which does not intrude
- Assess needs and concerns of the survivors
- Helps people to address basic needs (e.g., food, water, information)
- Listens to people but does not pressure people to talk about traumatic events
- Comforts and help them to feel calm
- Helps in connecting people to information, services available, and social supports
- Protects people from further harm
Aim of PFA
- To address emotional, practical needs and concerns
- To build people’s capacity (resilience) to recover
- To support recovery by helping people to identify their immediate needs, their strengths, and abilities to meet these needs.
The 3L Model (WHO, 2011)
Look: Check for safety, obvious urgent basic needs, and serious distress reactions.
Listen: Approach people who may need support, ask about concerns, listen, and help them feel calm.
Link: Help people address basic needs, access services, cope with problems, give information, and connect with loved ones.
What not to do?
- It is not useful (and sometimes may be harmful) to directly encourage disaster survivors to talk about what happened to them.
- Post-emergency settings are not clinical environment and it is inappropriate to conduct a clinical or psychological assessment.
- Not to support or provide emotional support to people with marked sign of risk (e.g., suicidal tendency). It is important to refer such people to formal mental health services.
Source: NCTSN (2000), WHO (2011), APS (2013). Reconstructed from shishirs.wordpress.com.