{"id":13,"date":"2016-10-10T23:29:48","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T23:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychologytt.org\/blog\/?p=13"},"modified":"2017-12-29T00:21:04","modified_gmt":"2017-12-29T00:21:04","slug":"observing-world-mental-health-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychologytt.org\/blog\/archives\/13","title":{"rendered":"Observing World Mental Health Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Trinidad and Tobago Association of Psychologists joins with the global community in observing World Mental Health Day <\/span>on October 10, 2016. This year the theme focuses on Psychological First Aid <\/span>(PFA) which refers to the first line psychosocial support following a crisis event. These crisis events can be large scale, like the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew in Haiti and the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis in Syria or it could occur at the individual level, such as being a victim of a violent assault or losing your home to a fire.<\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

\u201cPsychological First Aid is humane, supportive & practical assistance to fellow human beings who recently suffered a serious stressor\u201d<\/strong> -World Health Organisation<\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

PFA offers people a comforting, listening ear, support and access to help<\/span> <\/strong>in the aftermath of a crisis event. It helps them to cope with the emotional and social consequences and connects them with the resources they need to get further help.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need to be a professional to offer PFA. PFA is not professional counselling nor is it a form of psychological treatment. It does not involve analsying people and no one forces anyone to talk. Often those who are around immediately after a crisis might be relatives, friends, community members, police officers, doctors, other first responders- these are the ones who might offer PFA.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
If you are ever in a situation where you need to offer PFA, here are some tips:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

Dos<\/span>:<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Show you care by listening. Be patient, calm and attentive. <\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Be honest and keep it simple. Only give information if you actually have it. <\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Respect people\u2019s privacy and confidentiality. <\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Acknowledge their strengths and empower them.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Act appropriately for people\u2019s age, gender, religion and culture.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    ________<\/p>\n

    \u201cI\u2019m so sorry that happened to you.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

    ________<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    Don\u2019ts:<\/span><\/h3>\n
      \n
    1. Don\u2019t be pushy, interrupt or force people to talk.<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. Don\u2019t exploit the relationship or exagerate your skills. Don\u2019t expect payment or favours in return for helping.<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. Don\u2019t make false promises or false reassurances. Don\u2019t make things up or speculate.<\/span><\/li>\n
    4. Don\u2019t tell them your or someone else\u2019s story. Don\u2019t give your opinion, just listen.<\/span><\/li>\n
    5. Don\u2019t undermine or negate their feelings telling them how they should feel or why they shouldn\u2019t feel the way they do.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      Psychological first aid helps people to feel safe, connected, hopeful and empowered to regain control of their lives. Just as important as medical first aid, everyone in a crisis can benefit from psychological first aid. For more information, see the WHO website http:\/\/www.who.int\/mental_health\/wo…<\/a>.<\/div>\n
      <\/div>\n
      <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The Trinidad and Tobago Association of Psychologists joins with the global community in observing World Mental Health Day on October 10, 2016. This year the theme focuses on Psychological First Aid (PFA) which refers to the first line psychosocial support following a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-mental-health-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychologytt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychologytt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychologytt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologytt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologytt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/psychologytt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15,"href":"https:\/\/psychologytt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions\/15"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychologytt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologytt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologytt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}