Psychological First Aid (Basic) - Bridging Over Troubled Waters

About This Course

This course will help you gain knowledge and skills to attend to a person in distress. Psychological First Aid is a simple and cost-effective approach to help others who are experiencing psychological distress. In building people's own capacity and emotional resilience to recover psychologically, the psychological first aider can help reduce initial distress and promote flexible coping to overcome the crisis. Research shows that psychological first aid reduces the risk of mental health deterioration post-crisis. It has widespread appeal as it can be safely delivered by individuals without professional mental health training.

Background/Rationale: Psychological First Aid is a caring and compassionate approach to assisting people coping with stressful or traumatic life events. The core aim is to build people’s own emotional capacity to recover psychologically by reducing initial distress, meet immediate needs, promote flexible coping and encourage adjustment by identifying their own strengths and abilities. Psychological First Aid is based on an understanding that people affected by psychological distress will experience a range of early behavioural reactions that may interfere with their ability to cope. It provides calm and hopeful support to help people feel safe, connected to others, able to help themselves, and gain access to effective mental health professional services. As this course requires participants to engage in active role plays with scenarios of persons-in-distress, and respectful facilitation of open discussions of personal stories and challenges, confidentiality is required for course to be effectively run.