Psychological First Aid training online

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Psychological First Aid (PFA) is a set of crisis intervention techniques that are primarily intended for the public, including skills for children and families.  This training, and quite a bit more, is available on-line from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.

Although PFA descriptions seem to always mention that it can be used with responders, that’s certainly not the community it was developed for.  The principles apply, but the methods would have to be adapted quite a bit. It does not include any kind of group process, which can be one of the most powerful aspects of Critical Incident Stress Management, which was developed for public safety and other responders.

I’ve had some discussions lately about figuring out a combination of these approaches for CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) members – CISM for their self-care and PFA for offering support to their communities.