Psychological First Aid: A Whole Person Approach

Support people in acute distress

Learn how to provide psychological first aid to people in acute distress using the Lifeline 3R model: Recognise, Respond and Refer.

This model is informed by a whole person approach, which is based on the understanding that people affected by crisis will experience a broad and diverse range of reactions encompassing emotional, social, physical, spiritual and psychological wellbeing. The whole person approach also recognises the social-ecological context in which individuals experience traumatic events, and the influence of community resilience and adaptive capacity.

Psychological first aid seeks to:

• Reduce the initial distress.
• Foster short and long-term adaptive functioning (build resilience).
• Minimise the risk of further harm.

Topics Include:

• Module 1 – An Introduction to Psychological First Aid.
• Module 2 – Recognise who has been affected.
• Module 3 – Respond with appropriate care.
• Module 4 – Refer.
• Module 5 – Attending to your own wellbeing.

Format

There are 2 options for delivery for this course:

• Two-hour, self-paced eLearning through the Go1 Platform.
• Three-hour, face to face workshop (not available as a virtual workshop).

Resources: Printed copy of slides.

Course brochure