Psychological First Aid: Offering Hope Through a Scientific Approach

By: Radwa Al Helou

Psychological First Aid (PFA) is a multi-skill approach which enables individuals to help fellow human beings by providing them with basic psychosocial support during and in the aftermath of distressing events and emergencies. PFA is a key pillar of Psychosocial Support activities at Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) which believes in the strong connection between mental and physical health as well as in the need for both of them to ensure we live a balanced life.

Disasters, emergencies, conflicts and health crises cause death, bring about destruction and wreak havoc, leading to great human suffering. They also force us to carry a heavy emotional, social, moral and psychological burden. This is the case especially when children and their families are involved, particularly when one of their parents or caregivers dies or goes missing. PFA plays a major role in dealing with these situations.

Ever since its creation, PRCS has provided continuous psychosocial support to Palestinians in Palestine and the Diaspora. Its staff and volunteers endeavor to provide the best services, assistance and support to affected persons in a way that respects their dignity, culture and abilities. The Society’s PFA Program targets distressed persons who have been exposed to a serious crisis event. It assists both children and adults, offering them PFA during or immediately after an event as well as several days or weeks later too.

PFA is a multi-faceted approach that involves providing practical care and support which does not intrude; assessing needs and concerns; helping people to address basic needs; comforting people and helping them to feel calm; helping people connect to information, services and social supports; protecting people from further harm; and mitigating psychological disorders.

The Society’s PFA Program offers PRCS’ staff and volunteers training with a view to enhancing their readiness to respond to disasters and crises. It enables them to provide PFA on two levels in line with the IASC Guidelines for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings: level one involves addressing basic needs –including psychosocial needs- of affected communities, while level two focuses on carrying out psychosocial interventions based on the PFA approach.

 The Program includes training individuals in areas most prone to distressing events and emergencies, so they can help mitigate their impact on their communities. It offers community members PFA training to enhance their disaster preparedness levels. It also ensures that staff and volunteers act in a proactive way and stand ready at all times to provide PFA in their communities without putting their safety or that of PFA recipients at risk. Experience shows that the provision of continuous PFA helps the majority of affected persons recover from post-traumatic stress and enables them to cope with their grief.

According to Dr. Fathi Fleifel, Head of the Psychosocial Support Department at PRCS, “it is easy to give someone bread. What is more difficult is to give them an appetite. It is easy to give people covers but much more difficult to offer them warmth. PFA is what helps people acquire that appetite and warmth. It reduces our distress and the sorrow of others and increases our ability to deal with other people in a humane way. The more PFA training we provide, the more we are able to help others and to increase their resilience so that each individual is able to provide PFA in his community”.

Approximately 1200 persons have benefited from the PFA Program during the first half of 2015,fom West bank and Gaza strip.