Actions taken:
Irish Red Cross has fully embraced the concept of psychological first aid and extensive numbers of staff and volunteers have been trained.
Specific actions taken include:
- Since 2019 the following numbers of people have been trained in Psychological First Aid.
| Year | Trained in PFA |
| 2020 | 67 |
| 2021 | 131 |
| 2022 | 179 |
| 2023 | 152 |
| 2024 | 283 |
| Total | 812 |
In 2024, 7 new PFA trainers have completed the 3 online classes and face to face class.
They have all observed a PFA class and 4 have yet to co facilitate.
- From a Community support side of things we have 8 regular PFA trainers.
All our trainers are volunteers. This does not include the new group that have been trained this year.
- Irish Red Cross volunteers are actively providing psychological first aid throughout the COVID lockdowns in Ireland. When Ukrainian refugees started arriving on Irish shores, Irish Red Cross volunteers match them in the airports and ports to provide support through in kind donation and psychological first. As part of the domestic Ukraine response, Irish Red Cross has taking the lead role in providing psychological first aid training to local authority staff, community volunteers and staff of other NGO’s supporting Ukrainians in Ireland.
- The PFA training are provided in English, Ukrainian and in Russian. This is achieved by weekly trainings that are provided both online and on site. Regular online the sessions are also arranged for participants of the training to practise their PFA skills under the supervision and coaching of the Irish Red Cross PFA trainers. One strong feedback received through these practise sessions is the request for self help training to be provided in addition to psychological first aid. Irish Red Cross are taking action too develop and implement this training using the same methodologies mentioned above.
- Actions have been taken to support the well-being of staff by providing a mental health support service which can be accessed at any time online.
- In addition, Irish Red Cross has lobbied the competent authority to integrate psychological first aid into the national emergency framework.
Implementation completion:
No
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