Week 9 Assignment

Relief Organizations

Relief organizations often provide psychological first-aid following traumas. Much like medical first aid, psychological first aid aims to stabilize survivors in the immediate aftermath of traumas. Reflect on the response efforts of a relief organization with which you are familiar, following a specific terrorist attack. What strategies did they use? Were such strategies effective in mitigating the negative psychological effects of the terrorist attack?

For this Assignment, you will describe the role of relief organizations in the area of intervention and postvention. You then will select two specific relief organizations to compare, in order to understand the scope of psychological relief work.

To prepare for this Assignment:

· Review Chapters 3, 14, 17, and 18 in the course text Psychology of Terrorism. Consider the role of relief organizations and the potential strategies in providing intervention and postvention to survivors following a terrorist attack.

· Review the course media, “Psychology of Terrorism: Intervention and Postvention,” with Drs. Berger, Dardeck, Medrano, and Staub. Reflect on the strategies discussed for working with first responders to process the experience of a terrorist attack. Note: This course media contains images that are of graphic nature.

· Select two relief organizations and research the intervention and/or postvention strategies employed by each in response to terrorist events. You may select from those whose websites are included in your Learning Resources (the American Red Cross, the American Psychological Association’s Disaster Response Network, the Green Cross Academy of Traumatology, and the International Foundation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies), or may select others with which you are familiar. Focus on the work that each of these organizations does in response to terrorist events.