From Surviving to Thriving: Equipping Your Community to Heal

This workshop, presented by the Community Mental Health and Wellness Coalition, will provide participants with valuable skills to aid in community recovery following a disaster or traumatic event. Participants will be introduced to three evidence-informed interventions:  

• Psychological First Aid (PFA): An approach that helps people of all ages in the immediate aftermath of a disaster or traumatic event, reducing distress and promoting coping.  

• Skills for Psychological Recovery (SPR): A modular intervention that aims to help survivors gain skills to manage distress and cope with post-disaster stress and adversity.  

• Stress First Aid (SFA): An intervention that aims to help survivors gain skills to manage distress in the weeks, months, and years following a traumatic community event.  

The workshop will cover the major principles of PFA, SPR, and SFA, discuss their application in supporting response teams, and provide opportunities to apply PFA/SFA assessment strategies to community recovery needs in trauma event scenarios.  

Facilitator:  Dr. Richard Westphal is a professor at the University of Virginia School of Nursing. He was the leader of the Stress First Aid (SFA) development team and a co-author with Dr. Patricia Watson in developing the Stress First Aid Training Manual for the National Fallen Fire-Fighters Foundation. Dr. Westphal has extensive experience in supporting and training first responders and mental health professionals to assess, engage, and support each other and the community amid high-stress life experiences.

Register here, spots are limited: https://forms.gle/nyLD4ixzy3yJX4j88

Shareable flyer: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SBQqyh6BxPnu02Wt4VXWQ_VimgpOmr5q/view?usp=drive_link