Psychosocial Crisis Management: The Unexplored Intersection of Crisis Leadership and Psychosocial Support

Abstract

Epidemiological research has documented the serious health issues that can affect the victims of disasters and major crises. Yet, the psychosocial dimension of crisis has received little attention in crisis management literature. This paper integrates psychosocial principles with a model of strategic crisis management. The resulting model of psychosocial crisis management (PCM) describes how the tasks of strategic crisis managers can be guided by psychosocial support principles. This PCM‐model helps public leaders, at society and local community level, to better understand typical psychosocial dynamics and obstacles as the crisis life cycle evolves. Although crisis management insights and psychosocial support principles stem from different disciplines and research traditions, integrating them helps to reduce foreseeable problems in the response and recovery phases.

The organization of post-disaster psychosocial support in the Netherlands: a meta-synthesis

“…The majority of the scientific publications on post-disaster PSS is aimed at understanding health effects resulting from disasters, while little attention is given to the organization of post-disaster PSS during each phase of the disaster. This can be seen as surprising, given the implications of suboptimal post-disaster PSS for affected persons, and also given the risks involving suboptimal PSS for public leaders in terms of accountability (Dückers, Yzermans, et al, 2017). Developing coherent evaluation models for post-disaster PSS focusing on unravelling contexts, mechanisms and outcomes is a promising next step in improving the organization of post-disaster PSS.…”

“…However, the delivery of services during and after disasters is often met with conditions of collective stress and uncertainty (Boin & Bynander, 2015;Comfort, 2007;Reifels et al, 2013;Rosenthal, Charles & 't Hart, 1989;Scholtens, 2008). Hence, in addition to research on effective post-disaster PSS interventions for the health and well-being of affected persons (Dieltjens, Moonens, van Praet, de Buck, & Vandekerckhove, 2014;Gouweloos, Dückers, Te Brake, Kleber, & Drogendijk, 2014), some authors have recommended further study of the organizational dimension of post-disaster PSS (Bisson et al, 2010;Dückers, Yzermans, Jong, & Boin, 2017;Reifels et al, 2013;Te Brake & Dückers, 2013).…”

The Perspective of the Affected: What People Confronted With Disasters Expect From Government Officials and Public Leaders

“…In times of collective crisis, public leaders are supposed to give meaning to crises, often with the help of symbolism and public displays of compassion Sundelius, 2005, 2016;D€ uckers et al, 2017). The leadership task of meaning making, or communicating the broader impacts of a crisis to citizens, media and other stakeholders, is regarded as one of the crucial tasks in crisis management (Boin et al, 2005(Boin et al, , 2016.…”

“…The leadership task of meaning making, or communicating the broader impacts of a crisis to citizens, media and other stakeholders, is regarded as one of the crucial tasks in crisis management (Boin et al, 2005(Boin et al, , 2016. Their public acknowledgement might contribute to a collective sense of connectedness and hope (D€ uckers et al, 2017;Griffin-Padgett & Allison, 2010;Jong, D€ uckers, and van der Velden, 2016a).…”

“…Benedek and Fullerton (2007) pledge to incorporate these principles into policy and practice, which requires acknowledgement, acceptance, and incorporation into the efforts of community leaders and others (Benedek & Fullerton 2007). Implementation of the principles enables government officials and public leaders to serve as a necessary "vehicle" for the provision of social acknowledgment toward affected people, and contribute to bringing the principles into practice (Benedek & Fullerton 2007;D€ uckers et al, 2017).…”