Kris Schell, a social worker with RE-1, started the meeting talking about the incident command system the district has in place for a crisis and RE-1's Student Care and Recovery Team, which set up to respond to “anything that might be a crisis for a student or a family or a school.” That can be anything from the death of a parent to a school disaster.
The team consists of the district social worker, school psychologist, school counselors, school nurses, parent liaisons and others.
The training was led by Dr. Curt Drennen of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
“It's my team's job to help support, and train, and build connections across the state, so that when we have a response there is a strong and robust and professional behavioral health and mental health response within the community as well,” he said.
Drennen spoke about the four involuntary reactions to trauma: fight, which can translate into being angry, aggressive or pointing fingers; and flight, for example running in circles trying to get somewhere but getting nowhere. There is also the freeze reaction, which can be seen as someone trying to do 20 things at once but getting nothing done; and faint, which can be seen as someone falling away or disengaging.
“These are the responses we need to be looking for most critically after a crisis,” he told the audience.
Drennen also talked about the purpose of disaster behavioral health, which is to increase adaptive functioning, which helps people "get their temporal lobes turned back on." The temporal lobe, which controls emotional regulation and language, is usually the second part of the brain to shutdown during a trauma, after the frontal lobe.
Functioning is increased by decreasing stress and fear, which is done by making sure basic needs, such as food, water, shelter and sleep are met; increasing focus and problem solving to address safety needs; connecting people to family and friends; and identifying extreme reactions.
There are five empirically supported early intervention principles that can be used to help people cope with the event, including hope, safety, calming, connectedness and self and community efficacy.
“If you can base whatever you do in one of those principals, you can be sure what you're doing is truly impacting,” Drennen said.
Additionally, he explained the nine core actions of psychological first aid.
The first is contact and engagement.
“We need to never expect people to come us, we need to go to them,” Drennen said.
He told responders they should be a non-anxious presence when coming in contact with someone who has just been through a traumatic experience. To reduce anxiousness, he recommended the responder remember to breath, focus on the person or task in front of them and remember that they can't fix anyone or anything.
“You're not in a fixing situation; this is a 'getting through' situation,” Drennen said.
The second core action is safety and comfort. He encouraged responders to think about how they like to be comforted.
“Be constantly aware of who it is we're engaging with and how they see us,” he said.
In offering comfort, responders may be witness to emotional reactions. Drennen pointed out that every emotion has a purpose.
“When people have an emotional reaction, think about what's the purpose of this emotional reaction?”
He encouraged responders to always ask permission to enter the person's space; provide help or interact with them; be a sounding board, just listen; normalize what the person is feeling and thinking. Drennen also said responders should say things that acknowledge and validate the other person's experience and identifies/labels what the responder sees.
Examples of things to say include, “You look like you're really sad (or mad, frustrated, scared, etc.). Do you want to talk about it?” or “What do you need? How can I comfort you?”
Responders should stay clear of any comments that would be seen as evaluative or blaming of the survivor and they shouldn't say anything to make themselves feel better or fix their discomfort.
Examples of what not to say include “I know how you feel,” Iit could have been worse” or “Just be thankful that…”
The other core actions include:
• Stabilization – This is not always needed, but it's important to make sure the person is oriented to person, place, date, event;
• Information Gathering – Find out what their current needs and concerns are;
• Practical Assistance – Help the person identify what their most pressing needs are, clarify what their need entails and create an action plan around getting those needs addressed;
• Connections with Social Supports – Reunite the person with sources of support like family and friends;
• Information on Coping – Give people information on what to expect of themselves and of others in the days, weeks and months following an event;
• Linkage with Collaborative Services – Address people's needs by referring them to service agencies and experts;
• Respecting Limitations – Just because someone doesn't respond well to attempts to be supportive doesn't mean they are “in denial” of the impacts of the event or in need of further intervention.
Callie Jones: (970) 526-9286; email@example.com. Follow @cjones_JA on Twitter.