Insights Into A Psychological Support Agency Framework For Dealing With Catastrophic Events

Develop the framework for an ideal psychological support agency to respond to a national catastrophic event.

Write a report that details the psychological support framework. 

Include the following in your report:

The size of the agency

Qualifications and skills of the employees

Services provided

The key components of the agency and its overarching mission

How the agency can work with other organizations and what role the criminal justice system would play in this agency, if any. 

Qualifications and Skills of Workers

The aim of this paper will be to provide insights into a psychological support agency and this will also entail the framework for dealing with the support agency in response to a particular catastrophic event. Additionally, it will entail skills and qualifications of workers, size of the support agency, fundamental elements of a psychological support agency, the mission of the support agency and the various services which will be offered by the agency. Apart from the above mentioned aspects, the paper will also highlight on the functions which the criminal justice system will do in the support agency and also how a variety of organizations will work in coordination with the support agency.

 Often a particular catastrophic event may take place without any anyone knowing and also without giving any warning. Several plans should, therefore, be set to help when such an event occurs. Some of the catastrophic events which may take place include, earthquake, tsunami, hurricane and tornado. However, with the existing technology, it has become easy to predict when a particular catastrophic event may take place. The individuals, therefore, can prepare and leave such an area where it has been established that the particular event is likely to occur. An established support agency is significant and this is because it will provide support and assistance to the affected victims of the catastrophic event.

A large support agency will be required and this is to allow for support of all the individuals with specific services and needs. With such a large support agency, everyone will receive the services fairly. In the circumstance in which the catastrophic event is nationwide, a large support agency will offer a lot of help to the particular victims affected (Quevillon, Gray, Erickson, Gonzalez & Jacobs, 2016). The number of workers who will be employed within the agency will be about 3,000 and with such a number, it will be helpful during nationwide catastrophic events in handling such a situation.

Additionally, the psychologists in the board will all be skilled and trained and this is to enable them to help the victims who may require the assistance of the psychologists especially the counseling services. The opening hours for the support agency will be 24 hours for 5 days a week (Pratt & Jachna, 2015). However, under extreme conditions, it will also be opened over the weekends. The above opening hours is essential to allow for preparation promptly for any particular catastrophic event which could occur. Also, to promote fairness in the support agency, there will rotation in the employees’ schedule.

The primary aim of the support agency is to provide warnings to the individual citizens just prior to the occurrence of a catastrophic event. Based on the number of workers who will be employed in the agency, they will be typically adequate to provide support to the needs of certain group of citizens that is those with disabilities (Williams & Greenberg, 2014).

According to Wang et al., 2015), the catastrophic events have caused certain experiences to various victims and families and thus there will be the need to offer assistance and services at their comfort zone. A voucher is one of the fundamental services which will be given to the victims and families. Such a service will enable them to get the supplies which they may need in the various departmental stores of the support agency (Math, Nirmala, Moirangthem & Kumar, 2015). The key supplies which the victims may need include, undergarments, deodorants, combs, mouthwash, toothpaste, soap, brushes and toothbrushes among others. The other service which will be offered by the support agency will the counseling and this will be provided after the occurrence of a catastrophic event. The key significance of the counseling service will be to assist the victims to heal and also to console with the family members of the victims.

Fundamental Elements of the Psychological Support Agency

There will also be a partnership between the support agency and other agencies of the government which will include the FEMA and American Red Cross to help the victims and families (Kelty & Gordon, 2015). The importance of the agencies is numerous. For example, they will offer funding, food, and housing to assist the families and victims. The services which will be given to the victims and families will typically enable them to begin a new life after the occurrence of the catastrophic event. It is expected that with the counseling services offered to the victims, the families and victims will heal from the catastrophic event quickly (Undiyaundeye & Denga, 2018).

All the workers will be expected to have better qualifications and skills to help provide high quality services in the psychological support agency. There are certain qualities which the employees must possess during their conversation with the different clients. Such qualities include support, empathy, and compassion (Henderson, 2017). Additionally, there will certain issues which may arise during the catastrophic events such as pressure which all the employees are expected to have the ability to handle. Apart from pressure, there will be an issue pertaining to stress and thus it is expected of the workers to avoid stress and hence have the ability to take charge of the prevailing situation.

According to Dückers & Thormar (2015), the other qualifications and skills which must be possessed by the workers will be being supportive, excellent phone etiquette, empathetic, patient, professionalism, understanding, organized, flexible schedule, a good listener and have basic computer knowledge. It will be compulsory for all the employees to have the above mentioned skills and qualification while in the support agency to enable it to attain its key objectives. During the recruitment exercise, all the employees will undergo a test on skills to ensure that the right people are employed in the agency.

There will also be an extensive background checking with the aim of ensuring that those employees with potential are employed. Thereafter, there will training for the selected individuals which will be done at the call Centre (Rose, Spitz, Schein, Burlingame & Muskin, 2018). Such a training will be necessary to help the new recruits understand how they will be handling some of the individuals while in the support agency.

There are certain other agencies which the support agency will work together with. Such organizational agencies will include, the American Red Cross, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Organization for Victims Assistance (NOVA). Each of the above mentioned agencies will have a key role (Davis, Davis & Gibson, 2015). For example, NOVA will be responsible for providing assistance to the families and victims after a particular emergency event. The FEMA, on the other hand, will assist in rebuilding the society after the catastrophic event. Lastly, the Red Cross agency will offer certain items to the victims such as water, shelter, medical supplies and food.

According to Thompson & Bailey (2018), a criminal justice system is useful during the catastrophic event. For instance, after the occurrence of a catastrophic event, the criminal justice department will be charged with ensuring that the victims with mental illness in the mental health institutions are properly handled. A criminal justice system is also of significance during a catastrophic event in the sense that it protects those in the mental health institutions and prisons during catastrophic events (Cheema, Mehmood & Imran, 2016). The system achieves that watching the individual citizens who are not in prisons or mental health institutions to ensure that they are not harmed. During the occurrence of a natural disaster in any particular nation, the police officers will be in charge to keep order and assist where necessary.

Mission of the Psychological Support Agency

The mission and element of the support agency are to provide support to individual citizens to enable them to reshape and thereafter rebuild their life after a catastrophic event. The catastrophic events may at times occur suddenly without warning and hence there is often panic among the victims since they do not know how to react (Bagot, Murray & Masser, 2016). The key reason for the formation of the support agency will be to enable people to cope up with such situations and thus help them to react effectively to the events.

Conclusion

In summary, there is no specific time which a catastrophic event may occur.AN established support agency will, therefore, help provide support and services to the families and victims during such hard times. The absence of a support agency often results in a worse situation in the event of a catastrophic event. The existence of a support agency in every particular nation will enable it to rebuild and reshape after the occurrence of a national catastrophic event which may cause damages to the particular country.

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