Training: Psychological First Aid knowledge and skills review and workshop

A FREE training for formal and informal community leaders, clergy, and counselors with nationally recognized trainer Dr. Richard Westphal. The training will focus on expanding knowledge and strategies to offer emotional support before, during, and after community trauma.

This 3-hour short course is a follow-on training from the Spring 2018 Psychological First Aid (PFA) and Skills for Psychological Recovery (SPR) training. Specifically, this workshop is designed to provide a review of PFA/SPR principles, introduce Stress First Aid (SFA) to support community response team members, and apply the PFA/SFA assessment principles to a community relevant scenario. Community members who did not attend the 2018 PFA/SPR training are welcome, but participants should have some interest, experience, and context for providing emotional support in relation to a traumatic community event.

Objectives: At the completion of this training the participants will be able to:

1. Identify the major principles of Psychological First Aid (PFA), Skills for Psychological Recovery (SPR), and Stress First Aid (SFA)
2. Discuss the application of PFA/SFA principles for supporting response teams.
3. Apply PFA/SFA assessment strategies to community recovery needs based on a trauma event scenario.

Psychological First Aid (PFA) and Skills for Psychological Recovery (SPR) were developed evidence-informed approaches to help children, adolescents, adults, and families during and in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster or traumatic community event. PFA is designed to reduce the initial distress caused by traumatic events and to foster short- and long-term adaptive coping skills in a variety of settings.

Stress First Aid (SFA) is an evidenced-informed approach to facilitate the recognition of stress injuries related to trauma, loss, fatigue, and moral distress, assessment of individuals and teams that may have a stress injury, and facilitating healing through the connection of team and community resources.

Dr. Westphal is a professor at the University of Virginia School of Nursing. He was the leader of the Stress First Aid (SFA) development team and a co-author with Dr. Patricia Watson in developing the Stress First Aid Training Manual for the National Fallen Fire-Fighters Foundation. Dr. Westphal has extensive experience in supporting and training law-enforcement, emergency services personnel, and mental health professionals to assess, engage, and support each other and the community in the midst of high stress life experiences.

The Community Mental Health and Wellness Coalition (CMHWC) and the Thomas Jefferson Medical Reserve Corps (TJMRC) hosted a PFA & SPR training to address recovery needs from the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville and preparedness for the future. We are committed to on-going capacity building to support disaster mental health preparedness and response.