How Can You Help a Loved One in Distress

  It's exhausting to fight a war inside your head every single day. Mental illness is indeed nothing to be ashamed of, only the stigma and bias around it is. Have you ever wondered about what you can say (to) or do for people who have been affected by, say, an accident or a natural disaster? Or even those people who often experience personal crises, from potentially losing a loved one, a stressful situation at work, or experiencing a serious physical illness? Click on the next page to know how you can help a loved one.

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Psychological First Aid This is where psychological first aid comes in; learning how to support those in distress. No matter who we are, we all need to know what psychological first aid is and how we can implement it in our lives and in the lives of those who need our help and support. What is Psychological First Aid? To put it simply, it is support and assistance given to fellow human beings who recently suffered a serious stressor. It is when we talk less and listen more; it's not about what you can say, it’s about giving space to the person who needs to talk. As a matter of fact, support can be given even by remaining silent yourself or just allowing the other person to remain silent. They might not want to talk and we must respect it. It is aiming to help them remain calm in the hour of distress. Psychological First Aid is not limited to just professionals. Anyone can provide support and assistance to anyone. It is not counselling, it is not something that requires a solution and we need to keep in mind that it is also not about pressuring people to tell you their story. All that is needed for you to provide support is to be present and patient. Click on the next page to understand some techniques of Psychological First Aid

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How YOU can help! While we talk about what Psychological First Aid is and isn't, we could look how we can practise it to help our fellow humans with their distress. If you find yourself in a position where you would like to support a person or people going through a difficult and stressful time:

• Try to find a quiet place to talk, like a park.
• We can let the other person know we are listening just by the occasional nod of the head.
• Always provide factual information especially when asked for it. Be honest about what you know and what you don’t know; say something like, “I don’t know but I will try to find out.”
• Last but not the least, always respect their privacy. Keep the person’s story to yourself, especially if they share private events.

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  Psychological first aid is being practised closer to home than one might think. With the ongoing tensions in Kashmir, people have lost their sense of security as well as their loved ones. In this case, psychological first aid helps us in recognising those who need help, listening to their story (if they share) and finally connecting them with services such as healthcare, food, shelter or even with their loved ones. The best part of it all is HELP Foundation in Kashmir is providing psychological first aid training to people from different fields (journalists, lawyers, teachers etc) so that we can all help. We’ve all had bad days, we’ve all gone through difficult times in our lives, we know just how much a listening ear and support have helped us get through them. Being able to feel safe can have a calming effect and it helps us feel hopeful. Knowing that social, physical & emotional support is just around the corner can help people do better in the long run. 

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