Ukraine refugee psychological wellbeing pack: guidance for services

Psychological First Aid (PFA)

PFA is a way of helping people to feel calm and cope in difficult situations. PFA involves caring about the person, paying attention to their needs, using active listening, and giving practical advice. PFA is not professional therapy or encouraging conversations about the cause of distress. Offering formal therapy and structured interventions can actually cause unintended psychological harms if offered too soon after a traumatic situation. It can also be unhelpful to 'pathologise' normal distress.

PFA is a way of helping people cope with distress, and it is something anyone can do. The focus is to help people get their basic needs met, such as access to safety, food, and shelter, and providing them with social support and information. This social support is best provided by people that they know, and/or have similar experiences to them. It is also important to note that not everyone who is in distress may need or want PFA. The seven principles of Psychological First Aid are (NHS Education for Scotland, 2021):

• help people care for their immediate needs;
• protect them from further risk of threats or harm;
• comfort and console;
• support people with practical tasks;
• provide information;
• help them connect to their own social supports; and
• educate people about normal emotional reactions and responses.

The key principles that everyone can apply when thinking about PFA are:

• Look for emotional reactions and see if someone wants or needs help.
• Listen by paying attention, accepting the person's feelings, ask about their needs, and help them find solutions.
• Link them into helpful information, help then connect with loved ones and their own social supports, and support them to find ways to solve practical problems.

It should be expected that many people will continue to experience psychological difficulties, including nightmares, feelings of anxiety, panic and low mood, for some time after they have arrived in Scotland. The events in Ukraine are ongoing and therefore the trauma and distress will be ongoing for people who have had to flee from Ukraine.