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Psychosocial support
Best practices
Psychological support, guidance, advice and care are traditionally carried out by family or community members. In todayís world, however, community bonds are changing and, in many cases, weakening. Red Cross Red Crescent programme workers have witnessed the breakdown of large, extended and close-knit family or community networks and the loosening of links between people which have meant that, when disaster strikes and help is needed, the traditional support mechanisms are not nearly as efficient as they once were.
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Even where these traditional support mechanisms function well, they are likely to break down in the aftermath of disaster or crisis. |
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The International Federation's psychological support programmes are aimed at reintegrating individuals and families into their communities, and identifying and restoring community networks and coping strategies.
The activities of the programmes range from helping people to have "normal" psychological reactions in response to grief and loss, to support for volunteers, national staff and expatriate delegates.
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Analysing the efficiency
of these programmes can help improve psychological support programmes,
prove useful in advocating for those in need of such support,
and promote the particular approaches of various National Societies.
 To
aid programme analysis and future programme development, the
Federation has issued a publication entitled Best Practices,
which brings together case studies from Red Cross and Red Crescent
programmes dealing with different aspects of psychological support
in various parts of the world.
The objectives of this analytical compilation are to improve
Red Cross Red Crescent psychological care by:
- drawing people's attention to the invisible psychological
scars that disaster and emergency inevitably often create
- giving greater visibility to psychological support programmes,
so that people - whether working with the International
Federation or not - have a better knowledge of these programmes
and their roles
- assembling the lessons learned from the different programmes
- ensuring that the lessons learned from these experiences
are recorded in order to consolidate knowledge in this area
- ensuring that National Societies can adapt or apply the
lessons learned in their own work related to psychological
support and
- making recommendations so that guidelines for implementing
psychological support can be produced in the near future
DOWNLOAD: The Best Practices
publication is available here in seperate pdf files.
Best Practices:
Forward and precis (113 kb)
International Federation
Reference Centre for Psychological Support
Psychological support
programme for delegates
American Red Cross:
Disaster mental health services
Austrian Red Cross:
Critical incident stress management and crisis intervention
Colombian Red Cross:
“Building the country” mental health programme
Danish Red Cross: Psychological
first aid and psychological support
Finnish Red Cross:
Psychosocial care programme
French Red Cross: Croix-Rouge
Écoute psychological support activity
Icelandic Red Cross:
Psychological first aid and psychological support
Children affected by
armed conflict (CABAC)
Chernobyl Humanitarian
Assistance and Rehabilitation Programme (CHARP) psychosocial
support service
Crisis
mental health assistance (Kenya Red Cross Society)
Social welfare programme
(Red Cross of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)
Creators of their future
(Turkish Red Crescent Society)
A copy of the full publication can be obtained by visiting the
catalogue of publications.
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