The PFA for all Pledge Group is hosting an open webinar on Psychological First Aid in complex situations.

Based on the understanding that PFA should be trauma-informed, this webinar focuses on PFA and complex reactions and situations. Presenters from the Irish and Danish Red Cross present on PFA and complex reactions and situations in prison environments and a new PFA module on complex reactions and situations that have been field tested in Ukraine in the spring of 2023.

PFA is an entry point to assist people in acute distress. It is a simple, yet powerful way of supporting someone, to feel calm, safe, and supported, and to link to more specialized support if needed. Learning PFA skills and understanding reactions to crises empowers the helper to assist others and to apply the same skills to their own crises. Everyone can learn PFA skills, including staff and volunteers who are responding to humanitarian needs as well as at-risk communities themselves. The PFA for all Pledge Group has been active for two and a half years since its adoption in December 2019.

Related Resources:
- Social Intervention Supporting Rehabilitation of People in Custody: Insights for working with excluded populations (2022): https://zurl.co/GSOE
- "It's Changed my life": Incarcerated Individuals Explanations of How Volunteering with the Red Cross Facilitated their Personal Development (2020): https://zurl.co/Dr8Q

In this inspiring webinar, Irish, Norwegian, Netherlands, French, and Swedish Red Cross, and Danish Red Cross Youth talk about their work in detention environments. People living in detention environments have mental health and psychosocial needs as they are far away from home, family, friends, work, and social networks. Different approaches to Community-based Health and First Aid work with people in detention are presented, the importance of MHPSS is underlined and the voices of volunteers and a former detainee are heard.

A recording of the webinar: ‘Setting Priorities for a 10-year Research Agenda for MHPSS Humanitarian Response’, hosted by MHPSS.net and Elrha on 17th January 2023.

A webinar on Problem Management Plus (PM+) Applications in Ukrainian Refugee Response. co-hosted by the IFRC Psychosocial Centre and the Strengths project.
The webinar is part of The STRENGTHS project, a research projects funded by EU Horizon2020.

On 15 December 2022, The IFRC PS Centre hosted a webinar in Arabic on Problem Management Plus (PM+). The webinar was part of the STRENGTHS project, a research project funded by EU Horizon2020.

On 25 May 2022, The PS Centre hosted a webinar in Arabic on the future of PM+ in the MENA region. The webinar was organised as part of the STRENGTHS project which focuses on scaling up psychological interventions with Syrian refugees.

On 12 April 2022, at the MHPSS European Network Digital Network Meeting ‘Migration in Europe’, IFRC Psychosocial Centre Technical Advisor talks about Mental Health and Psychosocial Support before during and after radiological and nuclear emergencies.

On 12 April 2022, at the MHPSS European Network Digital Network Meeting ‘Migration in Europe’, technical manager of the psychosocial services at the Austrian Red Cross Dr. Barbara Juen talks about the ongoing MHPSS responses in Ukraine and neighbouring countries.

On 16 November 2021, in a side event at the International Anti-Landmine Conference, chaired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, PS Centre Technical Advisor Sarah Harrison explains the role of Psychosocial Support in Mine Action

The authors of the three resources in the toolkit, Ea Suzanne Akasha, Mark Kucklow and Jonathan Morgan ‘unboxed’ the toolkit and introduced the elements of the toolkit resources and how they might be used in practice, while participants had an opportunity to discuss the tools with the authors and each other.

MHPSS Behind the Screen Series is produced by the PS Centre, and it is about how to conduct MHPSS trainings online. Episode 1 talks about how to apply MHPSS principles to online training platforms.

MHPSS Behind the Screen Series is produced by the PS Centre, and it is about how to conduct MHPSS trainings online. Episode 2 looks into the various technical aspects of planning for an online training.

MHPSS Behind the Screen Series is produced by the PS Centre, and it is about how to conduct MHPSS trainings online. Episode 3 talks about how to transform a longer MHPSS training into an online format.

This side event seeks to raise awareness on the importance of integrating Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in Victim Assistance and Mine Action at large.

Psychological First Aid. A webinar for IFRC National Societies by Ea Suzanne Akasha & Anouk Boschma, the IFRC Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support.

By Pernille Hansen, psychologist and MHPSS specialist, & Anouk Boschma, technical advisor, The IFRC Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support.

Technical Advisors for the IFRC Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support, Ea Suzanne Akasha & Anouk Boschma, host a webinar on how to care for staff and volunteers in a National Society.

Challenges and techniques by psychologist and MHPSS specialist Pernille Hansen.

Sleeping, eating and moving. In a research update for European National Societies, the main areas of intervention to improve the wellbeing of children and adolescents were to support children to sleep well, eat properly and exercise.

The concept of moral injury has become increasingly popular over the past years to describe“the lasting psychological, social and spiritual harm caused by actions that transgress a person’s deeply held moral beliefs and expectations“
But what does that actually mean?
In this webinar, we unpack the concept of moral injury by asking three key questions:
- What is the concept of moral injury and how does it expand our understanding of trauma?
- What does the research on moral injury in relation to refugees show us?
- How can we use the concept in relation to humanitarian workers?

Psychosocial support after disasters or other traumatic events should promote five essential principles: 1) a sense of safety 2) calming, 3) Self- and community efficacy 4) social connectedness 5) hope.

By Eliza Cheung, clinical psychologist and specialist in psychosocial support, Hong Kong Red Cross and the PS Centre.

The Setting up and running the psychosocial unit in an ERU webinar focuses on needs assessment, setting up of the psychosocial component and initiating activities in the Basic Health Clinic in emergency operations. Eliza has been involved in many emergency operations and spoke about two large scale operations in recent years, namely the operation in Nepal after the massive 2016 earthquake and in Bangladesh after population movements in 2017.

Lessons learned from deployments to natural disasters and population movement. Organised by the IFRC Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support and the IFRC Health and Care Department, Emergency Medical Services.

Why is the evidence-base for PFA so limited? What are the challenges for conducting research on PFA?
This webinar address these questions.

- Eliza Cheung, Clinical psychologist, Hong Kong Red Cross and Technical Advisor, PS Centre
- Koen van Praet, Clinical psychologist, Belgian Red Cross (Flanders)
- Ferdinand Garoff, Psychologist, University of Tampere

Part one is titled “Psychosocial Support for Resilience Building: World Disaster Report 2016” and is presented by Dr Maureen Mooney.

Presented by Dr Lee Devaney, psychologist, British Red Cross, CRUA project: Building Psychosocial Resilience: Experience from the CRUA project.

Part three of the webinar “Inner Resilience: Mental Health and Psychosocial Support contains the Q&A session, which followed the presentations by Maureen Mooney and Lee Devaney