1. Chapter 28: Psychological Emergencies and Disasters1

2. Psychological Emergency
One or more of the following signs and symptoms listed below may indicate a psychological emergency:
Anger
Behavioral deviance
Confusion
Anxiety
Fear
Mania
Depression
Withdrawal
Loss of contact with reality 2

3. Guidelines when giving psychological first aid care
Identify yourself
Express your desire to help
Use understandable language
Maintain eye contact
Listen intently and be empathetic
Act interested and concerned
Give calm and warm reassurance
Do not invade the victim’s “space” until the person feels comfortable
Never use any physical force unless the victim is a threat to self or others
Never lie to or mislead the victim
Do not engender false hope
Do not judge, criticize, argue or be overly sympathetic
Explain the situation to the victim and your plan of action; let the person know that you are in control
Avoid stock phrases like “everything will be OK” 3

4. PROGRESS CHECK
1. A goal of psychological first aid care is to minimize____________. (pain/life-threatening conditions/psychological disability)
2. Psychological first aid care is aimed at decreasing the intensity of the victim’s ____________.
(pain/emotional reaction/fear)
3. In an emergency involving a psychological crisis, every person, including you, is susceptible to____________ injury. (emotional/physical/sudden)
4. Emotional injury is just as ___________ as physical injury. (frequent/real/deviant) 4

5. Definitions Suicide: any willful act designed to end one’s own life
Reasonable force: The amount of force required to keep a person from injuring self or others
Concealment: A place or an object that will hide you, such as shrubbery
Cover: An object that will both hide you and stop bullets, such as a tree
Conversion hysteria: converting anxiety to a physical dysfunction, such as blindness or deafness 5

6. To manage a suicide emergency:
Make sure you are safe
Assess the person for physical injury
Assess the seriousness of the person’s thoughts and feelings
Calm the person and stay with him or her
If it is necessary to protect the person from self harm, use restraints 6

7. PROGRESS CHECK
__________are at highest risk for suicide. (Married men/Divorced men/Single women)
You should consider a suicide threat to be especially serious if the person has a ___________. (gun/knife/plan) 7

8. Legal Considerations To reduce your legal liability:
When possible, get consent
If a victim refuses care, carefully document what has happened
Avoid unreasonable f0orce
Seek police direction
Protect yourself against false accusations
Manage a crime scene 8

9. Managing mass casualty or disaster situations
Don’t let yourself become overwhelmed
Encourage victims or bystanders who are able to do necessary chores at the scene
Identify yourself; stay self-assured, sympathetic and businesslike and reassure anxious victims or bystanders
Assess and care for physical injuries
Keep spectators away from victims
Respect the right of victims to have their own feelings
Accept your own limitations 9

10. Conducting Triage Move quickly from one victim to the next
Correct immediate life-threatening problems
Tag each victim as to priority
Ask for additional assistance if needed
Assign available manpower and equipment to highest priority victims
When additional help arrives, arrange for treatment and transport of highest priority victims first
If possible, notify emergency personnel and/or hospital
Triage rescuer remains at the scene
Reassess victims regularly 10