Arts Relief

Psychological First Aid

Taught by: Ruth Hoskins

This course is for all American Red Cross workers who respond to local and national disasters. If you have ever worked on a local fire or disaster relief operation, you know these situations can be stressful for clients, co-workers, and you. How people feel and react to stress varies from individual to individual. What may not be stressful for you may be stressful for someone else. During this course, we will discuss how people react to stress in the aftermath of disaster and what you can do to provide comfort, care, and support.

The purpose of this course is to enable you to provide basic care, comfort, and support to people who are experiencing disaster related stress. Psychological First Aid: Helping People in Times of Stress provides a framework for understanding factors that affect the stress responses of disaster relief workers and the clients they serve. In addition, it provides practical suggestions about what you can say and what you can do as you practice the principles of Psychological First Aid (PFA).

For many years, the American Red Cross has been the leader in providing First Aid and CPR training throughout the United States. These particular training courses teach you how to:

• Recognize medical emergencies.
• Decide if you can help.
• Determine what to do.

Millions of people have completed the Red Cross First Aid and CPR training courses and, consequently, have saved lives.This Psychological First Aid course will help you to recognize and respond to people who need help because they are feeling stress, resulting from the disaster situations within which they find themselves. Knowing how to provide Psychological First Aid can help you to:

• Create a compassionate environment for disaster survivors and
• workers.
• Assess what a person might need at a particular time.
• Provide immediate support to those in stressful situations.
• Help others cope in the face of stressful events.

Arts Relief

Taught by: Christine Wineberg

The time to prepare for a response to a natural disaster is not in the middle of one. This workshop will introduce the creative arts therapy student/therapist or artist to a protocol for personal and professional preparation. This includes a review of current literature as well as a case study from a local Philadelphia creative arts therapy response to displaced survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita from the Gulf Coast region of the United States. Participants should prepare to participate in active music making and small group discussion as a part of the learning process.

Main Ideas discussed:

• Top-down vs. bottom-processing.
• Review of the use of music therapy in mass trauma.
• Natural disaster vs. Terrorism or man-made violence.
• Developing resources for the responder.
• Vicarious traumatization and vicarious resilience

Arts Relief: The Unique Needs of Children in On-going Conflicts

Taught by: Dr. Gene Ann Behrens

Various researchers report that most children are traumatized in some way by the on-going conflicts that exist in the world (Elbedour et al., 2007), but few provide suggestions for developing interventions to assist the children in coping. Music therapy can create a safe environment within which therapists can learn about and meet the emotional needs of children traumatized by on-going conflicts. As a result of my experiences working as a music therapist in Bethlehem, Palestine with children traumatized by the on-going conflicts, I will discuss (a) the importance of preparing for such a trip, (b) observations of the multi-traumatic situation that assisted me in working with the children, (c) and the role that music therapy played in working with the children. Outcome data, several experiences, video examples, and guidelines also will be shared.

Main Ideas discussed:

• Concepts related to multi-traumatic situations involving on-going conflicts
• Very brief summary of research on neurobiological changes as a result of trauma stress
• Top-down versus bottom-up processing in relationship to trauma treatment
• Potential benefits of arts-based approaches for individuals dealing with trauma stress
• Principles related to preparing for and working in another country