Title

Psychological First Aid and the Role of Scientific Evidence in Christians' Provision of Disaster Spiritual and Emotional Care

School/Department

Rosemead School of Psychology

Publication Date

Spring 2018

Abstract

When disasters strike, Christians and Christian humanitarian aid organizations (e.g., Mennonite Disaster Service, World Vision, Food for the Hungry, and Samaritan's Purse) are normally there to respond and provide early psychological, spiritual, and practical assistance. [...]a few studies (e.g., Hobbs et al., 1996; Mayou et al., 2000; Sijbrandij et al., 2006) have even suggested CISD may exacerbate PTSD and other forms of emotional distress, complicating survivors' recovery. Because of these various findings, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies has concluded: "The current evidence suggests that individual [CISD] should not be used following traumatic events... and that there is unlikely to be a significant beneficial effect of group [CISD]; therefore, its use is not advocated" (Foa, Keane, Friedman, & Cohen, 2009, p. 540; see also ISTSS, n.d.). [...]its principles and techniques are based on scientific evidence, expert consensus, and field testing. [...]it emphasizes the delivery of interventions that are individually tailored, pragmatically flexible, developmentally appropriate, and culturally responsive. [...]it consists of a manualized protocol that has detailed instructions and user-friendly handouts for providers and survivors to use (Brymer et al., 2006a).

Keywords

Disasters--Psychological aspects; Disasters--Religious aspects--Christianity

Publication Title

Journal of Psychology and Christianity

Volume

37

Issue

1

First Page

74

Last Page

79

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS