Mental health responders are using a strategy to help fire victims called Psychological First Aid — often compared to CPR for mental health. Its initial step is finding what a person needs right now.
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For people affected by the wildfires in Los Angeles, the needs aren’t just physical. They’re also emotional. To help, doctors, therapists and first responders there are practicing something called psychological first aid. It’s a short-term intervention that could help ease the long-term mental health impact of disasters. NPR’s Katia Riddle reports from Los Angeles.
KATIA RIDDLE, BYLINE: When the fire hit, Jake Harper (ph) was away on a work trip. He watched his home burn on a video his neighbor took. Now he’s homeless, standing outside an evacuation center in Pasadena. He’s regretting all the things he did not have a chance to save.
JAKE HARPER: I was in shock, yes, the first two days. And I kept going over in my mind, should’ve got this, should’ve got that. And I can’t live in should’ves anymore. Just continue on from here. Take action from here.
RIDDLE: Harper came on this day to apply for FEMA assistance. He’s clutching some clothing that the staff gave him while he was there.
HARPER: So I grabbed, like, a couple of socks. Like, I’m low on black socks now for work.
RIDDLE: Black socks for work. It may not be the first thing that comes to mind to help someone who’s in shock. But experts say meeting physical needs is also the most important way to meet mental health needs. Miriam Brown is deputy director with the Department of Mental Health. She’s also standing outside the evacuation center.
MIRIAM BROWN: Find out, what is it that you need immediately? What do you need now? How can I assist you? And sometimes just talking to the person, not even asking a question, but just being there and a presence means a lot.
RIDDLE: For the last week, that’s what she and her colleagues have been doing here, listening to people and strategizing with them about food, shelter, medication, finding loved ones. This is a practice called psychological first aid. It sounds simple, but it’s only become standard for disaster victims in the last two decades. Melissa Brymer is director of the terrorism and disaster program at UCLA.
MELISSA BRYMER: After 9/11, there was a real need to think through, how do we actually help primary survivors, victims in the immediate aftermath of a mass disaster?
RIDDLE: Brymer says some of the interventions that psychologists were practicing back then were actually making things worse. That’s because therapists were asking people to try to process their grief and trauma before they were ready.
BRYMER: If we think about the wildfires that are going on now in Los Angeles, different communities and different people are in very different spaces. We have quite a few that are not in the space right now to talk about what their worst moment is. They’re needing to, do they have a place to stay tonight? Do they have a change of clothes? Have they eaten?
RIDDLE: Psychological first aid is not just for therapists. Anyone can be trained in it in just a few hours. That’s important because experts say there is no guarantee people will be able to find the mental health care they need in the wake of the fires.
DAVID EISENMAN: Disasters like this right away interface with a broken mental health system in the United States.
RIDDLE: David Eisenman is director of the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters. Research shows that months or even years after wildfires, people can have elevated levels of anxiety and depression. Eisenman warns that Los Angeles is not equipped to address the needs they will face as a result of this event.
EISENMAN: There’s a shortage of mental health providers. There’s going to be an even greater shortage of mental health providers who are adequately trained in trauma and mental health.
RIDDLE: Training more people in psychological first aid, experts say, can help reduce the effects of the trauma in the first place.
Katia Riddle, NPR News, Los Angeles.
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