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After a disaster, Christians and Christian humanitarian aid organizations are usually there to respond and offer assistance. Yet, sometimes Christians offer disaster spiritual and emotional care with little awareness of what scientific evidence indicates is and is not effective. The purpose of this article is to help address this need by offering an overview of Psychological First Aid (PFA; APA, 1954; Brymer et al., 2006a), which is currently considered the most evidence-informed approach for providing early psychosocial help to disaster survivors. We begin by giving a historical and empirical overview of PFA and another widely used intervention-Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD; Mitchell, 1983). We proceed to discuss implications for Christians who provide disaster spiritual and emotional care. Our main take-away message is that scientific evidence needs to play a key role in informing Christians' provision of disaster spiritual and emotional care. In particular, Christians would benefit from receiving training in PFA and incorporating it into their provision of disaster spiritual and emotional care.
Natural and man-made disasters are an everpresent part of the broken world we inhabit. When disasters strike, Christians and Christian humanitarian aid organizations (e.g., Mennonite Disaster Service, World Vision, Food for the Hungry, and Samaritan's Purse) are normally there to respond and provide early psychological, spiritual, and practical assistance. However, sometimes well-meaning Christians offer assistance with little awareness of what scientific evidence indicates is and is not effective in helping disaster survivors. The recent upsurge in the frequency and intensity of disasters has made it all the more important for Christians to be trained in scientifically informed principles and practices of disaster mental health if they are going to provide effective care to disaster survivors (Aten, O'Grady, Milstein, Boan, & Schruba, 2014; Aten et al., 2017).
The purpose of this article is to help address this need by offering an overview of Psychological First Aid (PFA; APA, 1954; Brymer et al., 2006a), which is currently considered the most evidence-informed approach for providing early psychosocial help to disaster survivors. We first give a historical and empirical overview of PFA and another widely used intervention-Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD; Mitchell, 1983). Then we explore implications for Christians who provide disaster spiritual and emotional care.
A Historical and Empirical Overview of PFA and CISD