“While people often know a lot about physical illness, most people have little knowledge about mental illness. This lack of understanding promotes fear and stigma. It prevents people from seeking help early and seeking the most effective help. It also keeps people from providing appropriate support to friends, colleagues, family members and people around them simply because they don’t know how.” – Mental Health First Aid: Student Handbook, Canadian Mental Health Association (2011)
Psychological First aid is also known as Mental Health First Aid or emotional first aid. PFA teaches the learner how to fearlessly and non-judgementally assist others when they are in mental crisis, it is helpful in learning how to negotiate the psychological stresses of both everyday life and trauma both acute and long-term.
Learn More About Psychological First Aid:
PFA was initially developed first responders, disaster relief responders and other frontline workers to help someone who is experiencing a traumatic situation. This can cause reactions and behaviours that may be hard to understand. Learning Psychological First Aid protocols and techniques can help you to approach someone in a helpful manner and guide them to the help they need. You are not expected to be a counsellor or professional psychologist, you are meant to be a human that this person can connect with in a time of need.
National Child Traumatic Stress Network: https://www.nctsn.org/treatments-and-practices/psychological-first-aid-and-skills-for-psychological-recovery
NCTSN Field Operations Guide: https://www.nctsn.org/sites/default/files/resources//pfa_field_operations_guide.pdf
Also search for NCTSN Psychological First Aid in your App Store!
American Psychological Association: https://www.apa.org/practice/programs/dmhi/psychological-first-aid/resources
Australian Red Cross: https://www.psychology.org.au/for-the-public/Psychology-topics/Disasters/Recovering-from-disasters/Psychological-first-aid-supporting-people-disaster
Psychological First Aid: https://www.redcross.org.au/getmedia/dc21542f-16e4-44ba-8e3a-4f6b907bba6f/Psychological-First-Aid-An-Australian-Guide-04-20.pdf.aspx
Guide for Field Workers: https://www.psychology.org.au/getmedia/c1846704-2fa3-41ae-bf53-7a7451af6246/Red-cross-psychological-first-aid-disasters.pdf
World Health Organization: Manual for Field Workers: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/psychological-first-aid
University of Minnesota PFA: https://www.health.state.mn.us/communities/ep/behavioral/index.html#aid
Also search for University of Minnesota PFA in the iStore!
Where to Find Psychological First Aid Training:
University of Minnesota (Free, 1 hour): https://learning.umn.edu/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=1735854
National Child Traumatic Stress Network (Free, 6 hours): https://learn.nctsn.org/course/index.php?categoryid=11
John Hopkins Psychological First Aid through Coursera (free by requesting funding, 6-8 hours): https://www.coursera.org/learn/psychological-first-aid
Canadian Red Cross ($20 each for Self and for Others, online): https://www.redcross.ca/training-and-certification/course-descriptions/psychological-first-aid
Mental Health First Aid Canada ($195, two full days instructed): https://www.mhfa.ca/en/course-type/mhfa-standard-virtual
