Psychological First Aid

NPR had a recent post that led me to some basic research about a topic called "Psychological First Aid" or "Mental Health First Aid."  I found the following resources for something that, as psychology teachers, we all do to varying degrees--helping students deal with stress and other challenging situations.  I would hope that we all know when to refer--that as teachers of psychology, we know more than the average person, but we let the professionals do their jobs.  We do the first aid and let the counselors and therapists do the heavy lifting.

Here are the article and links:

• The NPR Article
• Psychological First Aid Fact Sheet  .pdf
• Red Cross Resources for Parents and Teachers
• APA--Helping Traumatized Children
• Mental Health First Aid USA  a course in this topic area
• Mental Health First Aid FAQs
• Wikipedia article on subject
• From the US Veterans Affairs Department
• National Child Traumatic Stress Network Field Guide  .pdf