Establishing evidence-informed core intervention competencies in psychological first aid for public health personnel.

Full Abstract

A full-scale public health response to disasters must attend to both the physical and mental health needs of affected communities. Public health preparedness efforts can be greatly expanded to address the latter set of needs, particularly in light of the high ratio of psychological to physical casualties that often rapidly overwhelms existing mental health response resources in a large-scale emergency. Psychological first aid--the provision of basic psychological care in the short term aftermath of a traumatic event--is a mental health response skill set that public health personnel can readily acquire with proper training. The application of psychological first aid by public health workers can significantly augment front-line community-based mental health responses during the crisis phase of an event. To help achieve this augmented response, we have developed a set of psychological first aid intervention competencies for public health personnel. These competencies, empirically grounded and based on best practice models and consensus statements from leading mental health organizations, represent a necessary step for developing a public health workforce that can better respond to the psychological needs of impacted populations in disasters.

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Author information

Author/s: Parker, Cindy L (CL); Everly, George S (GS); Barnett, Daniel J (DJ); Links, Jonathan M (JM);

Affiliation: Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health Preparedness, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA. Ciparker(-atsign-)jhsph.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Practice Guideline; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: International journal of emergency mental health (Int J Emerg Ment Health), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-; vol 8 (issue 2) : pp 83-92

Dates: Created 2006/05/17; Completed 2006/06/29; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 16703846, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Clinical Competence
Crisis Intervention - education; methods
Emergency Services, Psychiatric - standards
Evidence-Based Medicine - methods
First Aid - methods
Health Personnel - education

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