NNED Forum Call: Psychological First Aid

December 12, 2011

Psychological First Aid aims to target, address and neutralize the experiences of an individual’s exposure to violent and traumatic situations. An individual may experience a painfully wide range of physical and emotional sensations. Traumatic symptoms found in victims of violence or those that work with victims of violence may include combinations of confusion, fear, hyperarousal and emotional numbness. Unfortunately, sometimes in an emergency or crisis situation, we may do or say things that can actually do harm when people exposed to traumatic situations are “wide open” emotionally and very vulnerable. By learning about and applying Psychological First Aid, health care workers can provide a much needed “treatment” or intervention that aims to address the internal wounds we often skip over vs. the external wounds that demand our immediate attention when a patient arrives in the ER. The primary objective of Psychological First Aid is to “do no harm” thus the goal is to create and sustain an environment of 1) safety, 2) calm, 3) connectedness to others, 4) self-efficacy or empowerment, and 5) hope.

This webinar was held on November 10, 2011.

Watch the webinar recording.

Presenters:

Sandra Bloom, MD  |  School of Public Health, Drexel University

Dr. Sandra L. Bloom is a Board-Certified psychiatrist, graduate of Temple University School of Medicine. In addition to her faculty position at the School of Public Health at Drexel, she is President of CommunityWorks, an organizational consulting firm committed to the development of nonviolent environments. Dr. Bloom currently serves as Distinguished Fellow of the Andrus Children’s Center in Yonkers, NY. Dr. Bloom served as Founder and Executive Director of the Sanctuary programs, inpatient psychiatric programs for the treatment of trauma-related emotional disorders. In partnership with Andrus Children’s Center, Dr. Bloom has established a training institute, the Sanctuary Leadership Development Institute, to train a wide variety of programs in the Sanctuary Model®. 

Landa C. Harrison, LPC  |  School of Public Health, Drexel University

Landa C. Harrison, LPC, NCC is the Coordinator of the Transforming Violence Intervention in Health Care through Trauma-Informed Practice NNED learning cluster and a staff member at Drexel University’s Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice. In addition to her work with Drexel, Landa is the Senior Project Manager at the Sanctuary Institute in Yonkers, NY. Through her work at the Sanctuary Institute, Landa has collaborated with Dr. Sandra Bloom and colleagues to develop the curriculum for the Sanctuary Leadership Development Institute training, as well as various trauma informed Sanctuary Model publications. She has also overseen the training and consultation process for over 60 organizations across the United States and three other countries to implement the Sanctuary Model. Landa also finds time to manage a small mental health consulting firm in Pittsburgh, PA.