Psychological First Aid: Supporting Children and Young People (FutureLearn)

You’ll focus on children and young people’s mental health, and what you can do to help them cope and access the support they need during and after emergencies and crisis situations..
The course has been produced by Public Health England, working with a wide range of experts and organisations. It is based on international guidance from the World Health Organisation, United Nations and partners.
You don’t need any prior knowledge or experience as this introductory course will teach you the key principles of giving PFA to children and young people in crisis situations.

Identify how emergencies like COVID-19 affect children and young people’s mental health
Crises can severely impact mental health and it’s important that people have access to the support they need.
During this course, you’ll explore how emergencies affect mental health and what you can do to help the children, young people, and families you come into contact with.
You’ll learn how to recognise the common signs of distress across different age groups and be able to identify who might be at an increased risk.
PFA will also teach you helpful strategies to determine when people require additional support.

Deliver psychological first aid
By the end of the course, you’ll be able to deliver PFA techniques to support children and young people’s mental health after emergency and crisis situations.
You’ll have the tools to adapt PFA to the needs of particularly vulnerable people and be able to identify the ways to look after yourself and peers.

What topics will you cover?

• What is Psychological First Aid?
• How do children and young people respond to emergencies and crisis situations?
• The PFA stages to supporting people: Prepare, Look, Listen, Link
• Supporting yourself and your colleagues

The course includes short quizzes to help learners reflect, and prepare them for the final test, based on a scenario to evaluate their knowledge. There are also links to further resources and reading which learners can explore after finishing the course.

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

• Explain what psychological first aid is
• Identify children, young people and families for whom it is suited and how you can help them
• Describe how children and young people of different ages react to traumatic experiences
• Identify ways to look after yourself and your peers when working in the context of an emergency
• Engage with further reading into psychosocial support during emergencies

Who is the course for?
This course is aimed at frontline or essential workers and volunteers who come into contact with children and young people aged 0-25 years during emergency and crisis situations.
Those who may benefit from this course include parents/ caregivers, front line workers or volunteers; or for young adults to support their peers or family.
You don’t need any previous experience or qualifications to deliver PFA. The following is what you will need to use PFA:

• Be a good listener. An important part of PFA is identifying what help and support each person requires.
• Understand the importance of accurate information during the pandemic and where to access it.
• Have the ability to encourage active coping by, for instance, helping people make plans.
• Encourage and help people to connect to others (in line with current regulations).
• Be aware of people’s cultural preferences and needs.
• Be aware that some people may be extremely distraught and tearful and that you may become upset too.

We recommend that people who offer interventions based on PFA should have social support available to them such as volunteer coordinator, line-manager or supervisor.