Practically Speaking: Behind the Episode - “When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Stress First Aid (SFA)”
As behavioral health providers, many of us receive training, and are well positioned to help people after a disaster or traumatic event. But what do you do in situations of ongoing threat, ongoing stress and adversity, perhaps lasting months or years? In this episode of Practical for Your Practice, we are joined by the amazing Dr. Patricia Watson, a psychologist at the National Center for PTSD, who walks us through the incredibly versatile Stress First Aid (SFA) model.
Listen to the full discussion here: When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Stress First Aid (SFA)
Watson takes us through not only her own behavioral health provider origin story, but the origin story for SFA, “We gathered about 50 people from all around the world…It was, again, a combination of researchers and people who'd been on the ground in lots of different situations. We presented the research that we gathered about this topic to them. Then we asked them to help us think through ‘What can we recommend to people that had been in situations like this?’”
What the group distilled down would become what are referred to as the five essential elements of SFA: Safety, calming, connectedness, self-efficacy, and hope – and thus, the SFA model was born. “Whenever I give a training, I always tell people if you don't remember anything else about this training, just remember that if you, or your family, or your friends, or people you're working with are in a difficult situation and it's an extended period, we know that there are five things that seem to be helpful”, Watson says.
One of the strengths of SFA is how it maps onto the Stress Continuum model. Originally developed by the Navy and Marine Corps, the Stress Continuum model is a (stigma-reducing) stress classification system that provides a common language for identifying, engaging, and intervening when stress reactions or injuries present in military personnel. The continuum ranges from green (ready) to yellow (reacting) to orange (injured) to red (ill) with injuries possible from trauma, loss, moral injury, and wear-and-tear. So what is the relationship between SFA and the stress continuum? The goal of SFA is to help people who've gone into the orange zone, to mitigate their stress early on with peer support using the five essential elements, and prevent them from hitting the red zone that requires clinical care.
Another strength of SFA is that it can be applied to many settings, situations, and ongoing events within various cultures. “We're trying to make it really user-friendly” Watson explains. “It's also a really flexible, flexible model where we're not telling people how to reduce stress. We're just telling them, ‘These are the important elements to keep in mind when you're putting yourself in a place where you want to help another person’ or ‘use this model for self-care. You get to decide how you calm yourself or how you calm a coworker.’ Because we don't want to come in and say, ‘You have to do it this way,’ because we know that will fail. People have to pick what works best for them. But we do tell them, ‘when you're in the middle of stress, we know these things are helpful’, …they tend to fall away when we're under too much stress and we're too busy’”. The incredibly flexible model of SFA includes core actions that people can take based on the type and severity of a stress injury and has been used with populations from military members to fire fighters, law enforcement to EMS, harm reduction workers to healthcare workers.
“People who are in any type of job where they're serving others, to me are like gold.” Watson says. “They're really, really important and we have to preserve them because they're not out for themselves. They're here to help others.”
If you want to expand your knowledge on how to best support those who serve and experience prolonged periods of stress you won’t want to miss this episode. Take a listen to hear actionable intel on how this model will help YOU help reduce stress reactions for those who need it most. And, when the going gets tough, you too can provide Stress First Aid (SFA).
Until next time…
Listen to the full discussion here: When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Stress First Aid (SFA)
Jenna Ermold, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist working as the Associate Director of Online Training, Technology and Telehealth for the Center for Deployment Psychology at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland.
As behavioral health providers, many of us receive training, and are well positioned to help people after a disaster or traumatic event. But what do you do in situations of ongoing threat, ongoing stress and adversity, perhaps lasting months or years? In this episode of Practical for Your Practice, we are joined by the amazing Dr. Patricia Watson, a psychologist at the National Center for PTSD, who walks us through the incredibly versatile Stress First Aid (SFA) model.
Listen to the full discussion here: When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Stress First Aid (SFA)
Watson takes us through not only her own behavioral health provider origin story, but the origin story for SFA, “We gathered about 50 people from all around the world…It was, again, a combination of researchers and people who'd been on the ground in lots of different situations. We presented the research that we gathered about this topic to them. Then we asked them to help us think through ‘What can we recommend to people that had been in situations like this?’”
What the group distilled down would become what are referred to as the five essential elements of SFA: Safety, calming, connectedness, self-efficacy, and hope – and thus, the SFA model was born. “Whenever I give a training, I always tell people if you don't remember anything else about this training, just remember that if you, or your family, or your friends, or people you're working with are in a difficult situation and it's an extended period, we know that there are five things that seem to be helpful”, Watson says.
One of the strengths of SFA is how it maps onto the Stress Continuum model. Originally developed by the Navy and Marine Corps, the Stress Continuum model is a (stigma-reducing) stress classification system that provides a common language for identifying, engaging, and intervening when stress reactions or injuries present in military personnel. The continuum ranges from green (ready) to yellow (reacting) to orange (injured) to red (ill) with injuries possible from trauma, loss, moral injury, and wear-and-tear. So what is the relationship between SFA and the stress continuum? The goal of SFA is to help people who've gone into the orange zone, to mitigate their stress early on with peer support using the five essential elements, and prevent them from hitting the red zone that requires clinical care.
Another strength of SFA is that it can be applied to many settings, situations, and ongoing events within various cultures. “We're trying to make it really user-friendly” Watson explains. “It's also a really flexible, flexible model where we're not telling people how to reduce stress. We're just telling them, ‘These are the important elements to keep in mind when you're putting yourself in a place where you want to help another person’ or ‘use this model for self-care. You get to decide how you calm yourself or how you calm a coworker.’ Because we don't want to come in and say, ‘You have to do it this way,’ because we know that will fail. People have to pick what works best for them. But we do tell them, ‘when you're in the middle of stress, we know these things are helpful’, …they tend to fall away when we're under too much stress and we're too busy’”. The incredibly flexible model of SFA includes core actions that people can take based on the type and severity of a stress injury and has been used with populations from military members to fire fighters, law enforcement to EMS, harm reduction workers to healthcare workers.
“People who are in any type of job where they're serving others, to me are like gold.” Watson says. “They're really, really important and we have to preserve them because they're not out for themselves. They're here to help others.”
If you want to expand your knowledge on how to best support those who serve and experience prolonged periods of stress you won’t want to miss this episode. Take a listen to hear actionable intel on how this model will help YOU help reduce stress reactions for those who need it most. And, when the going gets tough, you too can provide Stress First Aid (SFA).
Until next time…
Listen to the full discussion here: When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Stress First Aid (SFA)
Jenna Ermold, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist working as the Associate Director of Online Training, Technology and Telehealth for the Center for Deployment Psychology at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland.