VIRTUAL: Psychological First Aid

Training Description: Psychological First Aid has long been established as the gold standard of disaster responses. Created by a global team of experts, it is the only intervention endorsed by both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. government (FEMA/MEMA) for use in the aftermath of traumatic events.

The goal of this comprehensive full-day training is to prepare participants to deliver basic behavioral health disaster response skills following large-scale disasters or critical incidents, such as homicides, suicides, accidental deaths, and similarly distressing events. Participants will be presented with the evolution of efforts to assist survivors following trauma, and provided with an overview of the human stress response and how it affects the choice of interventions used with distressed individuals. The eight core functions of Psychological First Aid (PFA) will be taught.

Objectives:

Participants will be able to...

• Describe the basics of psychological trauma, including the physiological response and six domains that are affected by trauma
• Identify the eight Core Actions of Psychological First Aid
• Describe the overarching structure of incident command structures and core components of critical incident response