Follow-up and lessons learned in post-2004 Indian Ocean tsunami psychosocial programming and operations: In July, 2014, the PS Centre, in cooperation with Indonesian Red Crescent (Palang Merah Indonesia) hosted a workshop to strengthen and improve psychosocial programmes and the capacity to deliver PSS interventions in South- and South East Asia after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
As part of the IFRC, the PS Centre works towards achieving the 2020 strategy, with the primary task of enabling and supporting National Societies. Following the tsunami lessons-learned workshop in 2008, a need for strengthening the collaboration between psychosocial support (PSS) and Restoring Family Links (RFL) services was identified.
The IFRC, the ICRC and psychosocial representatives from 11 National societies in South- and South East Asia gathered in Indonesia with the overall objective of strengthening and improving the capacity to deliver PSS interventions in their National Societies. The workshop served as a forum for participants to share challenges, experiences and lessons learned in an active and participatory learning environment.
All participating National Societies presented an overview of their PSS work since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and also discussed the threats and challenges that they have been, and are currently, facing.
Please follow this link to see all presentations from the workshop, including presentations from National Societies, IFRC and ICRC:
Bali Presentations.
The PS Centre introduced two of their newest materials:
The new materials have been created as a response to the needs from the field and are both designed to support staff and volunteers in a wide range of settings and contexts. The new materials were used as a starting point in order to identify and systematize lessons learned, strengthen National Societies and discuss recommendations in order to improve psychosocial programmes in the future.
Additionally, the new e-learning course on PSS and RFL, developed in collaboration with the ICRC, was introduced at the workshop. This e-learning course provides an insight into where and how PSS and RFL interventions meet and how these two areas can make use of each other’s experiences and resources. Follow this link to take the e-learning course: e-learning platform.
Last, but not least, the workshop put a special focus on creating a future platform and network for psychosocial interventions in the region for future cooperation.