February, 2010
To Our Colleagues
in Personnel…
This monthly
“resource tool” is designed to provide insight for personnel workers in
ministry-related areas. If you would like to be removed from the list (or
a friend would like to be added), please let me know… kenroyer@aol.com or kenroyer@linkcare.org.
“Building Skills
for Member Care with Excellence” -- Jan. 10-14, 2011. Mark your
calendars. We’d love to have you with us. More info
coming.
Counseling
openings available: In Link Care’s “Program of Restoration and Personal
Growth” – now is a good time to consider sending missionaries who could use a
“tune-up” (or even more help). Between the busy winters and summers – the
spring time (now) usually means we have more openings. As questions or
desired consultations come up, don’t hesitate to call or write. Ken Royer
= 559 439 5920 ext. 122; kenroyer@linkcare.org.
The focus for
this month: We’ve all been deeply saddened regarding the traumatic
situations in Haiti. I’m grateful for Link Care’s President, Dr. Brent
Lindquist, and his work in responding to crises. The following wisdom is
from Brent…
Crisis Response
Media
I (Brent) have been working with Trans World Radio for almost ten
years. We are gearing up to coordinate and develop media resources for the
aftermath of the Haiti Earthquake.
What follows is my
guidelines material for the 30 content providers who regularly do radio
programs. While it is specifically for my work with TWR, it is useful
beyond just media.
Please work through
the document and feel free to use any of the ideas in developing or enhancing
your own crisis response resources. If you would care to, please give me
feedback on it, or provide me with additional comments about future program
content. Also, let me know if you would like to be on the list for future
revisions of the document, and a developing list of programs we are creating.
Contact me at brentlindquist@linkcare.org.
Thanks!
MemberCare Media Coordinated Response for
Haiti
Brent Lindquist, Ph.D.
Link Care Center
Content Coordinator, MemberCare Radio,
TWR-Europe
January 29, 2010
Draft 1
Rationale
The Haiti 2010 Earthquakes have
been and are continuing to be a major devastation to that country and its
people. MemberCare Media (MCM) has asked me to develop a coordinated
response, from a Membercare perspective, in my role as content
coordinator. This coordination shall serve to illustrate our philosophy
and missiology of caring via media, especially radio, to the people of Haiti,
and serve as a model for future crisis response of all kinds globally.
This is specifically developed for MCR content producers, and our community of
content providers. It is also hoped that these guidelines may be of
benefit to other ministry initiatives. While this document and its
suggestions may serve as a guide for Membercare Radio (MCR), it is not meant to
be the official response of the rest of TWR entities and partners.
Finally, these guidelines are developmental. That is, they will be revised
as new information becomes available. I am trying to get this to a lot of
friends in this work arena, to get their input.
Context
One of the problems inherent in
any Complex Humanitarian Emergency is the inequity of response across the crisis
response timeline. By far, the greatest response occurs immediately
following the crisis, as well as the most funds released. People need to
be rescued and made safe, wounds need to be treated, the dead buried, and the
survivors given some type of shelter. This is currently going on in
Haiti. Radio response during this time is important and programs of
spiritual support and guidance are needed. However, because the response
is so strong in these earliest days, MCR is going to be focusing its efforts
both on the first two phases, but especially on later phases of crisis
response. The Red Cross and other entities typically refer to a four-phase
model of disaster response/recovery:
1. Heroic Phase: This phase usually occurs directly
after the disaster, when heroic actions are taken to help people recover from
and/or survive a disaster. The media may be just arriving on the scene or
not yet arrived at this phase. First Responders may not be
completely activated.
2. Honeymoon Phase: In this phase people draw together to
solve problems in an intense showing of community. Media interest is
intense during this phase. This phase generally lasts from one week to six
months. Honeymoon is a real misnomer in terms of Haiti. The
conditions are harsh, and are taxing the abilities of even the most seasoned
first responders.
3. Disillusionment
Phase: People begin to
get a mentality of “everyone for himself” when delays and other issues common
with disaster set in. About this time media interest begins to fade and blame is
assigned. This phase could extend from two months to one to three
years.
4. Recovery Phase: People start to pull together again to
get things done, Delays in the process continue to garner negative
feelings and reactions. The media may revisit the disaster at this time
(one-year anniversaries, etc.)
Most of the attention and
resources will be focused on Phases 1 and 2. TWR globally is already
responding to these phases by providing programming content. MCR has
produced a number of programs as well. They are in English and funds are
being raised to contextualize and translate them into Creole. Fewer
resources will be available for Phase 3, and this is where I am hoping to
coordinate major MCR programming efforts. It should be noted that the four
phases are somewhat loosely defined, and their time frames overlap. Also,
a country in such pre-crisis straits as Haiti, will probably not fit the model
as well as, say the US. In other words, people in Haiti may progress to
Phase 3 sooner, and stay there longer. Another perspective might be that
people in Haiti were in such chaos before that the disillusionment phase may not
be as big a drop…
Existing Content
Models
There are many resources
available in print format, which are being collected currently. Just from
my own work, there is a series of audio shorts entitled “Growth Through
Hardship” created in 2005 for Hurricane Katrina.
This can be downloaded at: (http://www.seasonsofcaring.org/resource_view.php?RID=5&RCID=2).
Also, introductory information
about a model of Post-traumatic growth is presented here: (http://www.seasonsofcaring.org/development_view.php?DID=3).
Additionally, there are
numerous crisis response related radio programs I have created over the
years. We are assembling a list of them from the MCR website. They
will soon be available as both audio programs and scripts. We plan on our
website linking to other resources and websites as time goes
on.
Target
Audiences
1.
The international
crisis response entities and personnel – Some of our programs should be directed
toward the first responders, as well as the continuing responders. These
personnel would be international in scope.
2.
Haitian resource
people – this would include pastors, ministry leaders, governmental political
and educational people and others.
3.
The survivor
community themselves, including all ages in the life span.
Content
Assumptions
1.
We are working in a
context where English is mostly a second language, and the USAmerican culture is
not the dominant culture. Simple “non-jargoned” English needs to be the
operating language. Also, resources for TA 3 will most likely be the
translated into at least Creole, if not French and or other
languages.
2.
While there are
numerous models of mental health crisis response, we will be working most
closely with the “Psychological First Aid” model developed by the National Child
Traumatic Stress Network and the National Center for PTSD. There are
numerous reasons for this choice. First it is the approach I have recently
been trained in as a trainer for PFA for Central California. I have been
adapting it for cross-cultural environments. It appears at present to be
suited for quick dispersal in the immediate aftermath of a crisis, and all our
target audiences can utilize its modular concepts equally well. Here is an
introduction to PFA from the PFA Field Operations Guide:
Psychological First Aid is an
evidence-informed modular approach to help children, adolescents, adults, and
families in the immediate aftermath of disaster and terrorism.
Psychological First Aid is designed to reduce the initial distress caused by
traumatic events and to foster short- and long-term adaptive functioning and
coping. Principles and techniques of Psychological First Aid meet four basic
standards. They are:
1.
Consistent with research evidence on
risk and resilience following trauma
2.
Applicable and practical in field
settings
3.
Appropriate for developmental levels
across the lifespan
4.
Culturally informed and delivered in a
flexible manner
Psychological First Aid does not assume
that all survivors will develop severe mental health problems or long-term
difficulties in recovery. Instead, it is based on an understanding that disaster
survivors and others affected by such events will experience a broad range of
early reactions (spiritual, physical, psychological, and behavioral). Some of
these reactions will cause enough distress to interfere with adaptive coping and
recovery may be helped by support from compassionate and caring disaster
responders.
Major Content
Arenas/Themes/Stances
MCR is tapping into multiple
content sources for the development of programmatic resources. Some will
be borrowed, with permission as is, and made available for broadcast or
distribution. An example might be archived programs from all content
providers of MCR which we already have available. Other material may be
borrowed and adapted from other media audio sources.
However, as we develop new
content, my goal is that we utilize the following perspectives so that we are
not intentionally or unintentionally working at
cross-purposes.
Realistic Appraisal with
optimistic/hopeful forecasting. By this I mean that our program content
should be realistic in terms of the reality of the situations, but intentionally
offer multidimensional hope (psychological/emotional/spiritual) for the
future.
Normalization of Survivor
Reactions. Assuming from the
parameters of PFA, programming will seek to provide support by normalizing
emotional response to the crisis. For example, parents’ normal reactions
in this crisis are to be afraid for the safety of their children. A
program addressing fear, would normalize fear, and seek to give the listener a
hopeful understanding of the future.
Practical help strategies
for self care. There will most
likely be few if any professional caregivers available for most listeners.
Let’s try to help people help themselves, and help those around them. Kind
of a peer-to-peer approach.
Recovery of Hope, Finding
Hope anew. Can listeners sense
the hope that you offer in your programs?
Biblically-based examples as
possible. This may be obvious,
since our context is the faith-based community. I am concerned that we
orient any materials we have towards biblical examples, and directly reference
them as possible. I am hoping by this slant that the listener can continue
to utilize those concepts in their larger spiritual life. For example,
scripture portions accompanying content on anxiety could perhaps be more easily
recalled during prayer and worship, than some psychologically oriented content
alone.
Specific
Programming
Here I list some off the cuff
ideas for programming ideas. I do not think outsiders would necessarily
produce them, but we could gather information and resources for local
programming efforts.
1.
Games fostering
healing
2.
Storying exercises
– like therapeutic story telling…
3.
Going further ideas
– like active listening skills.
4.
After the
deployment – self care for responders.
This is where I am today.
I will be extending the list of program topics, and send out updates. If
you have any feedback on any of this, please let me know. I am hopeful we
will have a section of the website which will keep people informed In the
meantime, you can email me directly: brentlinquist@linkcare.org.
Thanks for you involvement and
input.