PSYCHOLOGICAL FIRST AID/TRAUMA TRAINING: ETHIOPIA

Working with the Addis Ababa University, Ammanuel Psychiatric Hospital, Anbassa Hospital and Hamlin Fistula Hospital to train staffs in the fundamentals of psychosocial response. On June 17-18 2008, 84 nursing staff, nursing aides and university staff were trained in Psychological First Aid and trauma response by PBB Fellow Dr. Siddharth Ashvin Shah.

HURRICANE KATRINA STS TRAINING: UNITED STATES

Conducting Secondary Traumatic Stress training for Hurricane Katrina responders. In April of 2007 PBB conducted a workshop at the Louisiana State University School of Social Work in Baton Rouge. This workshop was designed to give Social Work students information about secondary traumatic stress and how they might cope with this problem. LSU was chosen for this workshop because of the high numbers of social work students either affected by the Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005 or working with those who were. The workshop had two primary goals: first, to offer information about secondary traumatic stress and how to avoid it to a population likely to experience it, and second to conduct research in traumatic stress in the social work population. The workshop included several components: education on the potential for helping professionals to develop secondary traumatic stress, familiarization with self-assessment tools to help workers track stress, a narrative element of writing about experiences during the hurricanes and group discussion these experiences, and an introduction to two separate relaxation techniques designed to reduce stress: self-hypnosis and yoga. Ninety-five graduating students in the MSW program at LSU participated in this workshop.

TSUNAMI RESPONSE: SRI LANKA

In response to the evident psychosocial needs following the devastation of the tsunami and the lack of existing mental health infrastructure to address the issues (e.g. there are less than 50 psychiatrists for a population of 19 million), PBB under the leadership of Dr Pamela Ryan and Dr Rony Berger sent a delegation of mental health professionals to Sri Lanka to assist with the crisis that has displaced around 5% of the country's population. Thirty-two mental health workers, teachers, and volunteers were trained in ERASE-Stress. In addition to the training of the ERASE-Stress Program the team also provided some psychological assistance to both the staff and clients of two NGO's established as a result of the tsunami. The focus of assisting the two NGO's was to address the need that the carers themselves need to be looked after. Doctors, nurses and volunteers from IMPAKTaid, along with psychiatrists, psychologists, teachers and caretakers from Adopt Sri Lanka, were provided with an opportunity to share their own experiences of the tsunami. PBB was able to effectively highlight the important message to the NGO's of both 'giving' and 'receiving' in the work that each of them do.