In the event of catastrophic and disastrous situations, every state has to develop a psychological support framework that helps its citizens in such trying times. Dependent on the disaster and the extent of damage it has done, the psychological support agency is formulated. Every government has a provision in its ministries that caters for emergency services. Countries like Japan and Indonesia have frequent national disasters. These countries have to formulate psychological support systems in such events to help control their citizens. Logically, the loss of lives, property, and displacement of settlements induces emotional disgrace and imbalance on the citizens. As a matter of fact, the casualties of natural disasters that are not in the control of the government suffer as a result of such occurrences. The major natural catastrophes in the national category are floods, earthquakes, as well as tornadoes among others. In this context, a psychological support agency has to be formed to cater with the rising psychological needs of the casualties.
Basing this support framework in the occurrence of a national disaster like floods in the country, say Japan, its organizational structure will take an ideal structure exhibited by other agencies formed for the same purpose. Fundamentally, there are common aspects and characteristics that are displayed by such agencies and are further used as the basis of evaluation of their success in their objectified goals (Thoits, 1985). Most importantly, the size of the agencies is an important parameter as it determines the success of the support agency. This specific example will display the fundamental parameters of all psychological support agencies. The scale of the natural disaster will determine the size of the psychological support agency. It directly corresponds to the scale of impact and the consequences of the natural catastrophic event. However, it is important to note that, psychological support agencies are formed as a result of a wide range of catastrophic events depending on the impact it has on the population, for example, the death of a president or a prominent person who had much influence on the people’s social lives.
The size of the agency, as depicted above, is directly proportional to numerous parameters of the catastrophic event. Fundamentally, the psychological support agency has to be large enough with sufficient resources to respond to the psychological cases presented as a result of the event. For example in the occurrence of an earthquake, the scale of the disaster determines the impact it has on the citizens and hence the size of the psychological support agency that responds to the issues that arise. For instance, most cases, which happen in Japan as a result of national disasters like natural catastrophic events affects a large portion of their population. Japan is a heavily populated country and the occurrence of such a natural event will most probably affect a large proportion of its population. With respect to this case, Japan forms a large psychological support agency that helps Japanese citizens affected in various ways by the disaster. This psychological support agency is large enough with localized branches that ensure every affected individual in the country is attended to.
The employees or workforce of any particular organization, shape the success and potential of the organization in implementing its organizational policies and meeting its objectives. The psychological support agency has a work force competent enough to ensure the organizational protocols and processes are well implemented. Given that this agency respond to psychological issues, it has to have a workforce that is competent and ready to deal with divergent issues displayed by psychiatric patients. In fact, there is a scalar distinction between divergent extents of psychological situations. As a matter of fact, the possible psychological damage such catastrophic disasters can impact on the citizens varies from one individual to the other. The work force must be professional enough to make a distinction between the two extents of psychological needs. The qualifications and skills of the employees in the agency are well evaluated before they are employed to ensure the best of services are offered.
The psychological support agency has a good classification of its workforce on the basis of skills and qualification. The agency has individuals with an acute experience on handling psychological situations. In fact, the agency has a workforce that is broken down into divergent skills and specialized fields with respect to the different psychological needs of the population. For example, there are sections of staff that deals with the resettlement of displaced persons and advising them on the safest way to live their lives given the losses they have incurred as a result of the catastrophic event. There are individuals who might not have lost any tangible possession but have lost relatives and loved ones as a result of the event. Additionally, the impact can go to extreme situations in which patients go mad and suffer from dangerous psychiatric conditions that necessitate professional psychiatric attention. The agency through the classification of its workforce has different officers with the experience in dealing with averagely every extent of psychiatric condition exhibited by the individuals.
The psychological support agency provides numerous services. This can be evaluated with respect to the psychological needs of different patients. Each psychological condition will most probably have a specific professional approach and list of activities that helps in the recovery of the patients. The agency responds to these situations and helps its clients in the form of services. Through its workforce, the psychological support agency advices the victims of catastrophic disasters on the healthiest ways to recover. This is done so that the events, do not affect them psychologically. For those who are already psychologically challenged as a result of the catastrophic events, the agency workers helps them through divergent health activities to not only ensure they get well but also that they are not further affected by the impacts of the catastrophic event.
The psychological support agency has a well-built organization that displays the key components of the agency. The components of the agency are well distinguished and localized enough to display the main objectives of the agency. Fundamentally, the agency has a well-established psychiatric hospital that deals with divergent issues in psychology. This hospital is very important as it displays the agency’s objective in ensuring the psychological needs of the victims are met professionally in a trusted institution like the hospital. Most importantly, the staffing in the hospital highlights the dedication the agency puts in saving the victims from psychological trauma. In fact, it is easier to gauge the size of the agency with respect to the basic components that make its organizational structure. In this context, depending on the size of the population of the victims, the hospital and all its facilities built.
Additionally, the psychological support agency has settlement areas that are used to resettle displaced persons. For instance, the psychological agency of the Red Cross Society, attending to the victims of flood in China following the building of the three folk’s dam along the Yangtze river, had a settlement zone which housed thousands of victims of the floods and those displaced at the time the bridge was build (Xia & Lu, 2009). In this context, the psychological support agency relieves the victims from psychological trauma by giving them a place to live. Additionally, the size of the resettlement zone is adjustable with respect to the scale of the catastrophe and the number of persons displaced. However, this component is not a compulsory project for all agencies, as a matter of fact, most concepts are evaluated with the necessity of their services with respect to the particular situation the agency strives to act on.
Moreover, the agency has a hall in which it addresses various sections of the whole population with respect to their psychological needs. This hall enables the agency to address the psychological grievances of the victims collectively (if need be). Additionally, the hall acts as an interaction zone for the victims of the catastrophe. Here, victims are given hope and addressed on the healthy processes that they can engage in to help them with their situation. It is believed that when people of similar grievances gather and interact together, they are presented a platform on which they can rebuild their social lives. This and other social components of the psychological support agency present the victims with the necessary social environment required in their healing and recovery process. Furthermore, the agency has a private office where different psychological patients are given special attention. Most importantly, consultancy is a paramount component of psychological support agencies. The agency has numerous consultation offices that offer victims a vast array of alternatives with respect to their psychiatric needs.
The main aim of the psychological support agency is to help the victims of catastrophic disasters control psychological conditions and also treat those conditions that can be treated. Fundamentally, the agency embeds professional tactics in addressing and helping the masses with respect to their capacity and the number of victims presented as a result of the particular catastrophe. The aim of all psychological support agencies is to guide victims through a path of recovering their lives, at least to a considerable extent. All the components and aspects displayed by any particular psychological agency are geared toward ensuring the main goal of the agency is achieved. Depending on the management and the organizational objectives of the agency, the policies are formulated. Thereafter, the policies are implemented by the various components of the psychological support agency.
The psychological support agency works on different fronts with the government and other organizations in implementing their organizational objectives. Most importantly, the psychological setup of human beings covers social, economic, and political aspects of life. In this context, the agency works hand in hand with social, economic, and political organizations in easing the psychological pressure developed by the victims. For instance, psychological agencies are connected to numerous health organizations which help them in organizing their strategies and health standards when dealing with patients. Additionally, most psychological agencies are made up of voluntary workers who can be paid by efforts from other organizations. The psychological agencies also have to work in collaboration with the government to ensure their policies do not conflict with the legal requirements of the government. It also extends to the criminal justice system of that specific country. Essentially, the criminal justice system collaborates on a symbiotic relationship with the psychological support agencies to help legalize all the activities of the agency.
References
Thoits, P. A. (1985). Social support and psychological well-being: Theoretical possibilities in Social support. Theory, research and applications , 51-72.
Xia, D. U., & Lu, W. A. (2009). On Post-Earthquake Psychological Crisis Intervention. . Chinese Medical Ethics, 4, , 32.
