The myth of the 1-day training: the effectiveness of psychosocial support capacity-building during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa

This paper considers the effectiveness of short training programmes to equip volunteers to provide psychosocial support in emergencies

From:
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Published
7 May 2019
Document Type:
Journal Article
Theme:
Health and Humanitarian Disasters and Emergencies
Authors:
Horn, R, O'May, F, Esliker, R. and Gwaikolo, W

Abstract

In emergencies and resource-poor settings, non-specialists are increasingly being trained to provide psychosocial support to people in distress, with Psychological First Aid (PFA) one of the most widely-used approaches. This paper considers the effectiveness of short training programmes to equip volunteers to provide psychosocial support in emergencies, focusing particularly on whether the PFA training provided during the Ebola outbreak enabled non-specialists to incorporate the key principles into their practice.

This research was supported by the Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) Programme

Citation

Horn, R., O’May, F., Esliker, R., Gwaikolo, W., Woensdregt, L., Ruttenberg, L., & Ager, A. (2019). The myth of the 1-day training: The effectiveness of psychosocial support capacity-building during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Global Mental Health, 6, E5. doi:10.1017/gmh.2019.2

The myth of the 1-day training: the effectiveness of psychosocial support capacity-building during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa

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Published 7 May 2019
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