CSU218 Psychological First Aid

WEEK 1
What are disaster events?
• A disaster is a critical incident that affects whole
communities and causes massive, widespread,
and collective stress and human suffering that
requires assistance to recover.
• Major classifications of disaster:
• • Naturally occurring (earthquake, hurricane,
tornado, flooding, bushfire) • Human-caused
(war, genocide, terror, etc.)
• Pandemic (COVID-19, Swine Flu, etc.)
• Accident (car accident, airplane crash, building
collapsed, etc.)
 Exercise
• How can disaster amplify the pre-
existing problems?
• Can you share your thoughts why
certain people can be more
vulnerable?
 The Impact of Disaster
• Disasters can create a wide range of problems experienced at the
individual, family, community and societal levels.
• • At the individual level, disaster can create high distress, anxiety,
traumatic stress, etc.
• • At the family level, disaster can interrupt family life and
separation of children from families, family financial hardship, etc.
• • At the community level, people need to be displaced, community
traditional events, festival, social life and other kind of activities the
community have been doing for generation can be disrupted.
• At every level, emergencies disrupt available services, increase the
risks of diverse problems and tend to amplify pre-existing
problems.
• The psychological trauma as a result of an event is powerful and
upsetting incident that intrude on daily life.
Common reaction to disaster
• • Majority of people show some change
after a traumatic / distressing event.
• These reactions are normal and
psychological stress will improve over time.
• Not everybody will be traumatized by
those events.
• The majority will be distressed, only a
small number will be chronic traumatized. •
Everyone reacts differently depend on
different risk and protective factors.
 Impact on children, families and
communities
• Social impact on children:
• Relations with others (family, friends, teachers) due to
psychosocial effects of disaster on children.
• New or changed roles, opportunities and responsibilities
(e.g. caring for siblings, drop out of school, work to support
family).
• Impact on family functioning:
– Family tensions and increased family conflict due to poverty and
less earning opportunity to parents or caregivers.
– Change in roles & responsibilities, change family dynamic (financial
impacts) i.e. fathers cannot earn money; mothers often have
increased care burden.
– Impact on community functioning:
• • Reduced resources - divisions and conflicts due to limited
existing resource and increase poverty and hunger.
 Other Situations that can negatively affect
children
• Death of parents, other family members, friends, or neighbors
• Separation from parents, family, and even the community
• Separation of parents (divorce)
• Conflict, tension, and violence in family
• and community life
• Displacement and refugee trauma
• Witness to other traumatic events
• • Physical injury
• • Sexual violence
• • Violence or conflict in the household or the environment surrounding the child
• • Poverty
• • School violence
• • Any other multiple and prolonged forms of child maltreatment
• • Family members who have serious mental health issues
 Gender Based Violence and Disaster

• The UN General Assembly defines violence against women as any act of gender-based
violence that results in or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or
suffering to women (General Assembly Resolution 48/104 Declaration on the Elimination
of Violence against Women, 1993). GBV is any act of violence perpetrated against a
person's will because of socially ascribed power imbalances between males and females.
• Emergency disaster impacts on men, women, boys, and girls, vary greatly.
• The violence increased after the disaster because the lack of safety and surveillance
• Women and girls especially may feel more stress due to increased workloads and
caregiving
• responsibilities, and limited access to resources and services during and after disaster or
• pandemic.
• Women and children are more vulnerable and exposed to different risks, including GBV,
• Sexual, psychological, physical and emotional abuse.
• Although majority of the data on SGBV refers to women and girls as the largest group
affected, GBV affects not only women, girls but also men and boys.
Gender Based Violence and Disaster
 Critical Events Characteristic
= Loss

• Crises typically disrupt a person’s life in many different ways. One important
characteristic is ‘loss.’ Examples include:
• Loss of personal relationships, close and significant loved ones
• Control over own life and future
• A sense of security, hope and initiative
• Loss of dignity, trust and safety
• Loss of a positive self-image
• Loss of trust in the future
• Social infrastructure and institutions
• Access to services
• Property and material goods
• prospects of a livelihood
• Loss of opportunity to generate an income