1. Psychology Support International
Psychological First Aid and Triage Preparedness for Critical Incident and Disaster Response
Glenn T. Goodwin, PhD, DABFE, DABPS, FABMPP President/Founder John Thoburn, PhD, ABPP Co-Founder

2. Recent Historical Background
The tsunami was a major critical incident of epic proportions, unexpected (scientists discounted a tsunami in the Indian Ocean region of the world), and unprepared for as a result.
However, scientists now agree that another tsunami is likely, the only question is when.
Further, on average, natural and technological disasters kill 50,000 people each year. An additional 74,000 are seriously injured, 5 million are displaced from their homes, and over 80 million are affected in some way by the effects of earthquakes, hurricanes/typhoons, floods, high winds, landslides, technological accidents, and urban fires (World Disaster Report, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 1999)

3. The Reason for PsyCorps
In the weeks and months following major disasters, long after the initial stabilization of medical and social relief efforts are in place, and the media attention tapers off, there exists an emerging, long-term effort in dealing with the psychosocial effects of death, injury, grief and loss.

4. The Reason for PsyCorps
However, the global provision of mental health care varies in its organization and effectiveness from region to region, often being reactive rather than proactive.
Furthermore, to be effective, psychological first aid must be culturally sensitive and relevant.

5. The Reason for PsyCorps
We realize that Western psychology must be locally interpreted to be relevant or appropriate in many regions of the world.
While other relief organizations seek to provide outside service to survivors of disaster, it is PsyCorps’ mission to help regions prone to natural or man made disaster create and develop their own teams to provide psychological first aid services directly to survivors, first responders and caregivers in the aftermath of critical incidents and disaster.

6. The Vision of PsyCorps
The vision of PsyCorps is to create a global community of culturally indigenous psychological support teams that are inter-connected and prepared beforehand to respond to the acute and long-term psychological effects of disaster survivors, first responders and caregivers.

7. Disaster Response: Acute Emergency Phase
The Primary Echelon of Disaster Support
Dealing with disaster induced deprived physical needs
Food, shelter, physical security, water, sanitation
Access to health care
Management of communicable diseases
The focus and mission of the well-recognized disaster relief organizations and NGO’s
Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Jan 2005, 83 (1)
But there is a serious problem not being adequately addressed in a primary way by these agencies. There is a void in terms of a global, organized, culturally relevant psychological first aid response (mental health) functioning at the same level and strength of the primary disaster relief agencies.

8. Disaster Response: Crisis and Post-Acute Emergency Phase
The Secondary Echelon of Disaster Support
Implementing culturally sensitive psychological first aid
Having local, community-based psychological support teams (chapters) in place, trained and able to be mobilized to:
Providing direct care to survivors
Providing secondary care to first responders and care-givers
Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Jan 2005, 83 (1)
PsyCorps is up and running, establishing regional operations around the globe. Our two objectives include…

9. Definitions: Critical Incident
Critical incidents (disaster) may be seen to reside along a continuum of scope from:
macro (disaster affecting the entire country such as war, terrorism or catastrophic natural disaster-volcano, tsunami) to,
meso (disaster affecting a region such as a airline crash, earthquake, flood, typhoon/hurricane, earthquake), to,
micro (discrete disasters affecting a locale such as an automobile accident or fire).

10. Definitions: Preparedness
Preparedness planning must address the psychosocial needs of both survivors and caregivers involved in critical incident and disaster.
A locale, region or country’s system of critical incident preparedness can only be as effective as the capacity for emergency, rescue and caregiver personnel to remain emotionally healthy and effective in dealing with their own stress and strain from interaction with the critical incident.

11. Needs Assessment
There is a general lack of organized psychological first aid provided to disaster responders.
Crisis workers and caregivers often feel the cumulative effects of stress, including burn-out or ‘compassion fatigue.’
The international PsyCorps assessment suggests that there is a major need for additional resources and services dedicated to managing caregiver stress.

12. Needs Assessment
Humanitarian assistance programs are often uncoordinated, resulting in an adverse effect on service recipients.
Cross cultural issues of humanitarian assistance and applicability are often overlooked.
Culturally indigenous, psychological support teams are rarely trained, organized and coordinated before a disaster strikes, affecting the timeliness of trauma response and quality of service.

13. Problem Statement
Many survivors, responders and caregivers of natural and man made critical incidents and disaster do not receive adequate attention to manage traumatic stress or compassion fatigue. The result has been
Survivors are more prone to developing PTSD
Caregivers are less effective than they might be
Caregivers are more easily burned out.
Civic, business and commerce suffers due to decreased employee productivity and mental health related absences and attrition.

14. Recommendations
That the government, civic and business community and NGOs should support posttraumatic stress reduction services to survivors, first responders and caregivers.
We recommend the development of Psychological Support Teams that are in place, trained and ready for effective and timely mobilization if and when major critical incidents occur. We suggest that these teams be comprised of locals to ensure culturally appropriate interventions.
We support the World Health Organization recommendation that ‘alleviating psychological distress and strengthen[ing] resiliency must be an integral part of humanitarian assistance,” (January 2005). By effectively integrating disaster mental health into broader humanitarian assistance programs, recipients will receive continuous care and greater service accessibility.

15. Why do we need Psychological Support Teams?
Mental health preparedness and aid has tended to be reactive and unorganized, rather than pre-planned and responsive.
Mental health preparedness and aid, in particular, needs to reflect the culture and values of the region.
Mental health resources need to be available to first responders and crisis workers as well as survivors.

16. Project Goals
The overall goal of PsyCorps is to ensure that culturally appropriate and accessible critical incident psychological support is available for the community at large. The following are the specific goals of the program.
Provide Development Consultation: a step-by-step framework for implementing regional psychological support teams experienced in emergency and disaster response
Provide team training and education in Flexible Psychological First Aid (FPFA)
Provide one-on-one FPFA support for survivors of critical incidents and disaster
Provide FPFA for responders and caregivers involved in critical incidents and disaster

17. Project Synopsis
PsyCorps International will establish PsyCorps Psychological Support Teams.
The Teams will be local volunteers, known as “befrienders”, trained in Flexible Psychological First Aid (FPFA) and Triage to provide trauma support services to survivors, first responders and caregivers involved in critical incidents and disaster.
Team development will include identifying an administrative core composed of project manager, clinical supervisor/director (licensed or certified mental health professional), liaison and administrative assistant.

18. Mission Statement
The mission of PsyCorps is to provide consultation and support in the development of international Psychological Support Teams that are:
Organized and prepared to respond to critical incidents and disaster
Trained in Flexible Psychological First Aid (FPFA) and Triage
Composed of nationals
Prepared to collaborate with civic and governmental agencies, emergency services, relevant health care services and other involved NGOs

19. The PsyCorps Paradigm: Flexible Psychological First Aid (FPFA)
The PsyCorps model offers a flexible, multimodal approach for the provision of psychological first aid and triage interventions. This model is called Flexible Psychological First Aid – FPFA

20. Flexible Psychological First Aid (FPFA)
Following disaster, there are numerous complex mental health issues and situations that emerge. We realize, based on clinical experience and accumulating research, that one model may be better suited than another for a given aspect of a critical incident.
The FPFA model draws from a spectrum of crisis intervention approaches to implement the most efficacious and appropriate strategy for a given situation.
Psychological support after disaster should emanate from a strengths based perspective with intervention and mental health assistance focusing on positive coping strategies.

21. Flexible Psychological First Aid (FPFA)
The FPFA model focuses on:
protection from future harm
current needs and concerns
practical assistance such as providing direction
assistance for connecting to loved ones
information resources and availability of additional support
acute care
psychological triage
death notification

22. PsyCorps | Psychology support international
Addressing the Posttraumatic Consequences of Natural and Man-made Disasters
Global network of Psychological Support Teams, organized, trained and prepared in advance, for response and management of the psychosocial aftermath of critical Incidents and disaster
Indigenous to Each Culture
Primary Mission: Providing Flexible Psychological First Aid (FPFA) and Triage for:
Survivors
First responders
Caregivers
But there is a serious problem not being adequately addressed in a primary way by these agencies. There is a void in terms of a global, organized, culturally relevant psychological first aid response (mental health) functioning at the same level and strength of the primary disaster relief agencies.