Disaster Reply 8
TEXT:
Reading
1. Behavioral Health Response to Disasters, Author: Framingham, Julie:
Original Question:
For this week’s Forum, respond to the following: his week we wrap up our 8-week learning experience, discussing some of the most important interactions and information encountered during the course. To close out the course, please complete the following:
· How do you believe you will make use of your new knowledge in future courses and in your present or future career?
· As you do in many courses, complete the following sentence to demonstrate the “most” important element of the psychology of disaster.
· If I could pick just one thing that the world would be well served to better understand about the psychology of disaster, it would be ________________. I chose this because ________________.
Reply to the following response with 200 words minimum. (please make response as if having a conversation, respond directly to some of the statements in below post. This is not providing an analysis of the original post. Respectfully address it and even ask clarifying or additional questions.)
1.
I had never heard of psychological first aid before and I thought that was a very good and useful tool. It was very in-depth and seems like it would help people quite a bit who had just survived a disaster. I did not know a lot about PTSD and I am glad that I learned about it. I did not understand how PTSD could affect people and I did not realize other beyond the military had a real issue with it. The media never talks about PTSD unless it has something to do with the military. This has kept me from ever thinking that were other people who could get it from work or a disaster. Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) is something that I had never heard of as well. When I read the story about a police officer who one day just broke and all the things he had seen over his career came back with a vengeance that made him unable to live a normal life. I liked that there are ways to prevent STS, however, I am not sure a lot of agencies are doing any of them.
As a first responder myself, I think being aware of STS and keeping an eye on others will help me quite a bit. Making sure that others and I are not overworked and that we are all completing self-assessments throughout any disaster we may be part of will help to prevent STS. I know that no one I have ever met in the Coast Guard has any idea about any of this stuff. Hopefully I can bring awareness to it.
If I could pick just one thing that the world would be well served to better understand about the psychology of disaster, it would be that first responders need help too. I chose this because they seem to be forgotten and all the focus in on the victims of the disaster.
-Lyle
2.
1,
Understanding the three way humans respond to a disaster (alarm, resistance, return) I felt was an important part to the course to understand because this allows you to understand were the victim maybe and give the provider an idea of what may be needed next to help. Next, understanding what needs children require during a disaster and tailoring a response to include services for children is important. Being able to return some sort of normalcy for children will lead to less of a long term effect left on children. Last, understanding ASD and PTSD and their likely onset times and treatment options (cognitive therapy, mindfulness therapy and pharmacological therapy)are very important. Knowing which treatment options will work for which patient can lead to the best outcomes for the survivors.
2,
As a first responder I tend to think about the emergency and how to quickly mitigate it, this course has helped me think beyond the emergency aspect of the incident and concentrate more on the recovery. Not just the recovery of infrastructure but the mental recovery of both the people that were affected by the incident and the responders that played a role in the incident. Understanding the mental health of the provider after a incident and ensuring counseling is available and will can allow for quicker return to work and hopefully allow for a much longer career of helping people.
3,
I think the most important aspect of understanding the psychology of a disaster is knowing that responders also need help after experiencing a traumatic event. I believe most responders try to push hard through tough events and refuse to seek counseling until it is too late. This leads to poor mental health for providers, increased time off from work and it is possibly career ending. Promoting the mental health of responders should be the priority of management teams and should be a part of any disaster response plan.
3.
Class,
I think the most important thing I would take away from this class was the treating trauma. Mindfulness therapy is a good technique to use. Techniques used in the therapy, like relaxation techniques utilized in meditation, aim to create a space for “stillness” of the mind and body. By coming to understand using their own thought process, patients suffering from acute anxiety are able to arrive at a place of acceptance of their thoughts leading to the ability to live with some negative thoughts and getting through the process of blaming themselves for what has happened. Mind-body interventions, in which the body is at rest as the mind is brought to stillness, appear to have the most impact on PTSD and stress (Bisson, Cosgrove, Lewis, & Robert, 2015). This a good technique to use for the simple fact that you allow the person to come to terms with what has happened and they can accept it. I think the worse way for treatment is using medicine because I think that the medicine clouds their judgment. When the medicine wears off they will not be able to cope still with the fact that the situation has happened. I think that if you do medicine you should only use it for a certain amount of time so that they can get themselves together but slowly help them come to terms with what has happened. Medicine should always be the last resort. I think this touches me just because I know a lot of times people do not need medicine but are just given to them. I wish that people understood the trauma that happens with disaster and that they would take the time to get the proper help so that they would be okay. Best wishes to you all.
Tiffany
** Please don’t just rephrase their info, but respond to it. Remember to answer question at the end if there is one. **
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