Introduction
It is known that our country has faced many catastrophic events that Americans had to challenge during the centuries. And the number of such catastrophes as tornados, earthquakes, floods, tsunamis and hurricanes has doubled during the last decade. These disasters can be predicted with the help of modern technologies and special radars, although the outcomes for people, cities and nature are unknown until the catastrophe occurs. This inability to be absolutely ready and well-prepared, as well as the general defenselessness of social masses and local specialists for the possible damages and their aftermaths is the main reason for creation of a special Psychological Support Agency that will help people throughout the country to deal with the psychological effect of different disasters they have witnessed. In such cases, the response strategies become especially important. This type of action is used to help people in difficult situations such as unexpected natural disasters. That is why such agency has to work in term of standard emergency service. Support services are also provided by ambulance, police and fire that are the quickest responders within the disaster affected areas. The great experience of these service providers is based on dealing with the first and therefore the most powerful reaction of affected people.
The great number of people involved in this type of support service as well as the great number of different types of aftermaths of the catastrophes and provoked emotions show the depth and complexity of the current issue. That is why the current work is dedicated to the elaboration of an ideal type of psychological support agency that would take into account all these aspects and provide people with essential help and professional support. Here, it is important to underline the size of the agency, qualifications and skills that their workers should have services they provide to their patients and the key components of the company.
Size of the Agency
The great importance of the agency for contemporary American society is supported by the fact that it will concentrate on the recovery process of the victims that survived in the catastrophes that is one of the main issues for the current type of crisis situations. Nowadays, the number of catastrophes that took place in our country became really big and therefore it is important to create a serious support agency that will be able to help big social masses and provide them with highest quality service, attention and care. Therefore, the number of employees has to be more than the standard psychological support associations as workers of the current agency will be helping great number of people in different parts of the country. Catastrophic events are producing a serious effect on thousands of people and therefore it is important to be ready to assist people at any time. The agency will have more than five thousands employees as the number of catastrophes that emerged this year is growing and the mentioned number of people will be providing them with well-organized professional recovery help. Every year, more than 7,000 of people struggle from stress and psychological disorders caused by such catastrophes as earthquakes, tornados, floods and hurricanes (Hoffpauir, Woodruff, 2008).
The importance psychological recovery is followed by such issues as medical and humanitarian assistance. The importance of humanitarian help was demonstrated within the recovery period the catastrophes in Gaza, Arkansas and Haiti (Lamb, 2014).
The humanitarian assistance is developing worldwide and therefore it is extremely important for psychological recovery agency to support their work with practical work experience that can be gained with the help of humanitarian assistance. Such level professional development also requires a serious number of qualified and motivated specialists that are also ready to work with international organizations and add new approaches to their psychological recovery programs.
Qualifications and Skills of the Employees
The special importance of professionalism within the working process of the psychological support agency requires many time and attention. Therefore, workers of the agency have to be able to prepare for the disaster long before the catastrophe. The prepapration process includes a big number of different techniques connected with social work, physical training and studying multiple variants of unexpected situations. It is important to define the main roles and functions, as well as personal qualifications of the employees in order to effectively organize working process and make it quicker and more target-oriented. Employees have to be physically and psychologically strong, have useful experience and have theoretical basis within psychological science, medicine and geography.
Moreover, the working professionals have to be good at decision-making as during the catastrophe it is essential to make quick and effective decisions as well as to be able to control personal emotions and the emotional stability of the social group (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2011). Good physical shape is also and proof of good level of self-control, mental stability and readiness for complicated situations that is essential for such work. Of course, it also can help people just after the catastrophe to get to the center, to feel protected and supported by a real professional.
Services Provided
After the serious natural disaster people are usually left in horrible psychological stance because of the personal losses they have faced. That is why it is extremely important to minimize the feeling of loss for each person. In such situation, psychological support agency has to concentrate on providing people with adequate living conditions, worthy accommodation, proper medical assistance, financial support and other available services. This will help people to overcome stress and get back to their normal life rhythm.
Moreover, it is important to organize a series of special support groups were people that have already survived catastrophes and successfully overcame psychological trauma will tell their stories to the current victims of severe damages and support them on their way to psychological stability. People usually tend to concentrate all their stress inside. Therefore, it is important to make anonymous groups to create the atmosphere of safety and stimulate people to share their feelings and show each other that they are not alone. The organization of such groups will be one of the key services provided by the agency.
A lot of people get seriously impacted by catastrophes that occur because of the worsening of their health and different physical traumas that do not give them the ability to act as they used to in their everyday life. It is known that they lose their professional qualifications because of physical aftermaths of the disasters. The current type of serious challenge for psychological stability is severe. The current fact makes it is extremely important of the psychological support agency to elaborate a complex system of professionals’ recovery and retraining.
Re-qualification programs will give people the ability to gain new working skills that can be used instead of the lost ones. Such trainings also help to concentrate the attention of the learner on studying, get new positive experience, meet new people that have also gone through the same crisis period and forget about their negative experience. Moreover, the organized programs for people that can renew their abilities after the recovery period will show them that they have not lost their biggest treasure – their health and professional skills and the ability to renew it will give them faith in future and in themselves that is one of the crucial moments in the process of psychological recovery.
The key components of the agency and its overarching mission
As it has been mentioned above, the agency has to be divided into several departments to make the working process quick, clear and effective. Qualified psychologists and psychiatrists have to be responsible for the meetings and communication groups. Each person has to be able to receive individual psychological help immediately. Such approach will make it easier for people to recover and minimize the length of the recovery period.
It is important to involve social workers to attract attention of the rest of society to the problem and at the same time inform them about the possible effect of such catastrophes. Moreover, social adaptation has to be supported by such practical aspects as new place of living, work and state financial support (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2011). Such measures would help people to feel the connection with the rest of the country or even with the rest of the world as the international humanitarian help is highly evaluated by all social workers.
Specialists in physical development will work with people that struggle from the aftermaths of the catastrophe and their physical abilities as in the majority of cases physical traumas are the main reason of stress. Moreover, this group of professionals will work with the qualified specialists from different spheres that can share their knowledge with these people to help them to gain new skill and get new job. Such programs would seriously reduce the suicide statistics connected with post-traumatic depression.
How the agency can work with other organizations and what role the criminal justice system would play in this agency, if any.
The agency will be cooperating with all other organizations that work within the sphere to be able to help the biggest number of people and provide them with all needed assistance. First of all, is necessary to mention the Red Cross that will be one of the key partners for the agency as the most widespread and influential organization in the sphere of professional medical assistance and support in all regions of the planet (Hoyt, Stanton, 2011).
Also, The American Psychological Association will be a good partner for the agency as it can share their deep knowledge and great experience within the sphere of psychological assistance that will be applied to real life situations. International cooperation can be developed through the coordinated partnership with such organizations as Australian Psychological Society that is one of the most reputable within the sphere (Australian Psychological Society, 2013). The agency will be social and non-governmental. Therefore, the presence of criminal justice system can be only minimal and do not expand the level of given recommendations and consultations in case the situation requires such methods.
Conclusion
The great enlargement of number of catastrophes and natural distastes that took place in the United States and on the whole continent makes it obvious that it is necessary to elaborate a high level psychological support agency that will help people to recover from psychological traumas received during tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, etc. The main accent has to be done on individual help proposed to every person and available consultation with qualified psychological specialists. It is important to divide agency into several different committees that will concentrate on different areas of mental recovery and therefore be able to work fast and be effective. It is necessary to define different reasons of stress and psychological instability and be able to cope with them. Agency will seek for international cooperation to gain new knowledge and to be able to help more people in a shorter period of time. Employees that will work in such agency have to be skilled and educated, although their inner strength and personal motivation will play a key role in hiring and working process.
References
Australian Psychological Society. (2013). Framework for the effective delivery of school psychological services. Retrieved from http://www.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/Framework-school-psychologicalservices.pdf
Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2011). Natural Disaster Recovery Framework. Retrieved from: http://www.fema.gov/pdf/recoveryframework/ndrf.pdf
Hoffpauir, S. A., Woodruff, L. A. (2008). Effective Mental Health Response to Catastrophic Events (Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina). Community Health Journal, 31(1):17-22.
Hoyt, M. A., Stanton, A. L. (2011). Unmitigated agency, social support, and psychological adjustment in men with cancer. Journal of Personality 79(2):259-276.
Lamb, L. (2014). The Psychological Trauma of Catastrophe: Gaza’s Children. Common Dreams. Retrieved from: http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/08/10/psychological-trauma-catastrophe-gazas-children
