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What is PFA? A full-scale public health response to disasters must attend to both the physical and mental health needs of affected groups. The latter set of needs is especially important because most authorities agree that far more individuals will report psychologically-related complaints than will report physical symptoms directly stemming from the injury-causing agent or event. Because a large scale emergency will overwhelm existing mental health response resources, psychological first aid - the provision of basic psychological care in the short term aftermath of a traumatic event - is an important skill set that all public health workers, emergency responders and natural community helpers should have. Further, with a sustained response like we are experiencing with the COVID-19 pandemic, PFA skills become an important tool for a wide variety of professionals with varied response tasks.

Program Overview: This is an abbreviated 3-hour virtual training that provides public health professionals, emergency responders, and natural community helpers without formal mental health education with the concepts and skills associated with psychological first aid. Additionally, this training is applicable to public health settings, the workplace, the military, mass disaster venues, and even the demands of critical incidents, e.g., dealing with the psychological aftermath of accidents, robberies, suicide, or community violence.

Intended Audience: Emergency responders, natural community helpers, mental health and substance use disorder providers, public health workers, health care professionals, social workers, counselors, spiritual care providers, and other individuals who wish to learn more about the behavioral health response to disasters.