Development of Psychological First Aid Guidelines for People Who Have Experienced Disasters

Abstract

This study developed guidelines for psychological first aid. This guideline promotes core response and disaster capabilities for disaster mental-health professionals, such as mental-health nurses and counseling psychologists at disaster sites. A research team composed of a first-aid professor and counseling psychology professor developed this psychological first-aid guideline to promote the psychological response required at disaster sites. The team verified each question’s content adequacy at each guideline-development stage to determine the appropriateness of response to a disaster. The PFA performance stage and achievement objectives were moved to the next stage only when the research team fully agreed upon them. This guideline revised and supplemented the six steps suggested in the handbook to five steps through expert meetings. The modified part was made into one step, without separating the first rapport formation and safety check. The checklist for evaluation was developed after verification by a total of four people, including one emergency-rescue-department professor, one counseling psychology professor, one paramedic, and one health educator. Based on previous studies, the cutting point is 24 points. The final completed psychological first aid consists of five stages: rapport formation and safety verification, psychological stabilization, information collection, problem resolution, and recovery, with details to be carried out at each step. These guidelines contribute to the promotion of disaster-response capabilities of disaster psychologists. Continuous training and practical exercises based on the five stages will provide fundamental data for a disaster-simulation psychological-first-aid educational development.

A Qualitative Study of Immediate and Evolving Reactions of Directly-Exposed Survivors of the Oklahoma City Bombing

“…The evolution of subjective responses to disaster exposure is of specific interest for informing interventions across different post-disaster time frames. Because the importance of different stages comprising the early post-disaster time period is well recognized (Flynn 1997), guidelines for psychological first aid specific to different early post-disaster stages have been developed for different populations and disaster settings internationally for use by multidisciplinary responders (Kim and Han 2021). Although much disaster mental health research has focused on symptoms and psychopathology, other studies have examined survivors' immediate post-disaster reactions more broadly, including feelings, thoughts, and behaviors (Appel, Rainey, and Ai 2021;Garske et al 2021;Knez et al 2021;Martini and Buda 2019;Shavit et al 2013;Tran and North, 2017;Tsai and Venkataramani 2015).…”

Correlates of Cardiology Nurses' Clinical First Aid Competence in a Selected Hospital in Shandong, China

“…In addition, the quality of resuscitation of acute and critical patients is an important indicator of the overall level of hospitals and their ability to save lives, which is directly related to the safety of patients' lives [18]. Nurses engaged in clinical frontline work, first aid ability is a necessary and should be skillful skills [19]. In clinical work, the first aid ability of nurses in nonemergency departments is easily neglected.…”