Hostname: page-component-76c49bb84f-sz5hq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-02T18:55:42.710Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Impact of Psychological First aid Training on the Providers: A Systematic Review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2022

Mitra Movahed ,
Melika Khaleghi-Nekou ,
Elahesadat Alvani  and
Mahdi Sharif-Alhoseini Open the ORCID record for Mahdi Sharif-Alhoseini [Opens in a new window]
Mitra Movahed
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, HELP University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Melika Khaleghi-Nekou
Affiliation:
Sina Trauma and Surgery Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Elahesadat Alvani
Affiliation:
University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Mahdi Sharif-Alhoseini*
Affiliation:
Sina Trauma and Surgery Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
*
Corresponding author: Mahdi Sharif-Alhoseini, Emails: sharif.mahdi@gmail.com, msharif@tums.ac.ir.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objective:

The consensus is that psychological first aid is a practical, early psychosocial intervention to mitigate the distress caused by disasters. This review aimed to investigate PFA training’s efficacy in the existing studies and evaluate these programs’ impact on trainees.

Methods:

MEDLINE (National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD), EMBASE (Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands), PsycInfo (American Psychological Association, Washington, DC), and Cochrane Library (John Wiley & Sons, Hobken, NJ, USA) were searched on August 1, 2020 without language and date limitation. The Cochrane Risk of Bias tool for randomized controlled trials and the Risk of Bias in Non-Randomized Studies - of Interventions (ROBINS-I) (Cochrane, London, UK) were used to assess the quality of the studies included. SPSS (IBM Corp., Endicott, NY, USA) was used for descriptive, comparative, and correlational summaries.

Results:

From 376 articles, only 9 studies met the criteria and were included after screening. The most common outcome was knowledge improvement, followed by increased confidence, and competence. Other outcomes encompassed Attitude, preparedness, and therapeutic engagement.

Conclusion:

PFA is the most suggested early intervention aftermath and could be acquired by professionals and non-professionals in the mental health area. Nonetheless, to obtain the desired outcome, PFA training programs’ quality is vital. This review revealed that most training programs’ duration was short, without scenario-based interactions and post-training supervisions. More controlled trials are required to measure the effectiveness of PFA training on the providers.

Keywords

emergency responderspsychological first aidpsychosocial supporttraining

Information

Type
Systematic Review
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 17 , 2023 , e120
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Everly, GS Jr, McCabe, OL, Semon, NL, Thompson, CB, Links, JM. The development of a model of psychological first aid for non–mental health trained public health personnel: the Johns Hopkins RAPID-PFA. JPHMP. 2014;20:S24-S29.Google Scholar
Vernberg, EM, Steinberg, AM, Jacobs, AK, et al. Innovations in disaster mental health: Psychological first aid. Prof Psychol Res Pract. 2008;39(4):381-388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uhernik, JA, Husson, MA. Psychological first aid: An evidence informed approach for acute disaster behavioral health response. Compelling counseling interventions: VISTAS. 2009;200(9):271-280.Google Scholar
Sijbrandij, M, Horn, R, Esliker, R, et al. The effect of psychological first aid training on knowledge and understanding about psychosocial support principles: A cluster-randomized controlled trial. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020;17(2):484.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ruzek, JI, Brymer, MJ, Jacobs, AK, Layne, CM, Vernberg, EM, Watson, PJ. Psychological first aid. J Ment Health Couns. 2007;29(1):17-49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brymer, M, Layne, C, Jacobs, A, et al. Psychological first aid field operations guide. NCTSN. 2006.Google Scholar
World Health Organization. Psychological first aid: Facilitator’s manual for orienting field workers. Geneva: WHO; 2013.Google Scholar
Horn, R, O’May, F, Esliker, R, et al. The myth of the 1-day training: the effectiveness of psychosocial support capacity-building during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. GMH. 2019;6.Google ScholarPubMed
Moher, D, Shamseer, L, Clarke, M, et al. Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 statement. Syst Rev. 2015;4(1):1-9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Higgins, JP, Altman, DG, Gøtzsche, PC, et al. The Cochrane Collaboration’s tool for assessing risk of bias in randomised trials. BMJ. 2011;343.Google ScholarPubMed
Sterne, JA, Hernán, MA, Reeves, BC, et al. ROBINS-I: A tool for assessing risk of bias in non-randomised studies of interventions. BMJ. 2016;355:i4919. doi: 10.1136/bmj.i4919 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, JS, You, S, Choi, YK, Youn, HY, Shin, HS. A preliminary evaluation of the training effects of a didactic and simulation-based psychological first aid program in students and school counselors in South Korea. PloS One. 2017;12(7):e0181271. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181271 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kılıç, N, Şimşek, N. The effects of psychological first aid training on disaster preparedness perception and self-efficacy. Nurse Educ Today. 2019;83:104203. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2019.104203 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kantaris, X, Radcliffe, M, Acott, K, Hughes, P, Chambers, M. Training healthcare assistants working in adult acute inpatient wards in psychological first aid: an implementation and evaluation study. J Psychiatr Ment Health. 2020;27(6):742-751.Google ScholarPubMed
Ford-Paz, RE, Santiago, CD, Coyne CA, et al. You’re not alone: A public health response to immigrant/refugee distress in the current sociopolitical context. Psychol Serv. 2020;17(S1):128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akoury-Dirani, L, Sahakian, TS, Hassan, FY, Hajjar, RV, El Asmar, K. Psychological first aid training for Lebanese field workers in the emergency context of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Psychol Trauma. 2015;7(6):533-538. doi: 10.1037/tra0000028 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chandra, A, Kim, J, Pieters, HC, et al. Implementing psychological first-aid training for medical reserve corps volunteers. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2014;8(1):95-100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCabe, OL, Semon, NL, Lating, JM, et al. An academic-government-faith partnership to build disaster mental health preparedness and community resilience. Public Health Rep. 2014;129(6_suppl4):96-106.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Allen, B, Brymer, MJ, Steinberg, AM, et al. Perceptions of psychological first aid among providers responding to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. J Trauma Stress. 2010;23(4):509-513.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Teding van Berkhout, E, Malouff, JM. The efficacy of empathy training: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. J Couns Psychol. 2016;63(1):32-41. doi: 10.1037/cou0000093 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bertram, RM, Blase, KA, Fixsen, DL. Improving programs and outcomes: implementation frameworks and organization change. Res Soc Work Pract. 2015;25(4):477-487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar