You can\u2019t watch the news without seeing the devastating effects of war on the people of Ukraine. My heart breaks for the people who are killed or displaced. I\u2019m sickened over the fate of all people in all wars, but the Russia-Ukraine conflict seems more widely televised and reported than others that I\u2019ve been exposed to. I feel relief for the refugees who find settlement outside their country.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
President Biden announced a streamlined process to provide 100,000 Ukrainian citizens opportunities to come to the United States. To be eligible, Ukrainians must have been residents in Ukraine as of February 11, 2022, have a sponsor in the United States, complete vaccinations, and pass security checks. Ukrainians will be eligible for work authorization.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Many of us would open our doors to refugees. Early in the conflict, I read a local Facebook post requesting assistance for the Ukrainian parents of a US citizen who needed housing and other resources. They received quite a few generous offers of housing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
So, if you meet a refugee, you might wonder how to help beyond providing the basics of food and shelter.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Emotional distress is not always as visible as a physical injury but is just as painful and debilitating. After going through a life-altering experience, it is common to be affected emotionally. Reactions manifest differently at different periods during and after the incident. Some common stress reactions include confusion, fear, feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, sleep problems, physical pain, anxiety, anger, grief, shock, aggressiveness, withdrawal, guilt, shaken religious faith, and loss of confidence in self or others.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Psychological First Aid (PFA) is a tool aimed to reduce stress symptoms and assist in a healthy recovery following a traumatic event, natural disaster, public health emergency, or even a personal crisis. PFA is not a mental health treatment reserved for professional counselors. Anyone can use it to help others. At its most basic, it means Listen, Protect, and Connect. It is supporting one another by listening to their concerns and needs, trying to help out where you can, and connecting them with other resources in the community.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Examples of listening questions are \u201cWhere were you when this crisis happened?\u201d, \u201cWhat was your relationship with the person who died?\u201d, or \u201cWhat did you see from your viewpoint?\u201d Listen without prying. Acknowledge the difficulty an individual may be having, but avoid making judgments and predictions, such as \u201cYou\u2019ll get over it,\u201d or \u201cThe strong survive\u201d. Validate the individual\u2019s experience. Pressuring the individual to relive the experience in too much detail may re-traumatize and cause more distress.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Generate coping and resiliency concepts by asking such questions as \u201cWhat have you found helpful since this experience occurred?\u201d or \u201cWhat can I do to help?\u201d The most common reactions to trauma are fear of emotional and social isolation. The goal is to help reestablish social support.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Explore what the individual may need to feel safe and comfortable. As questions such as \u201cWhat is the most difficult thing to deal with right now?\u201d or \u201cWhat are you most worried about?\u201d Provide information about resources that may help them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
An excellent PFA educational brochure can be found at https:\/\/www.ready.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/documents\/files\/LPC_Booklet.pdf<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You can\u2019t watch the news without seeing the devastating effects of war on the people of Ukraine. My heart breaks for the people who are killed or displaced. I\u2019m sickened over the fate of all people in all wars, but the Russia-Ukraine conflict seems more widely televised and reported than others that I\u2019ve been exposed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/interactionstherapycenter.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/interactionstherapycenter.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/interactionstherapycenter.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interactionstherapycenter.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interactionstherapycenter.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1035"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/interactionstherapycenter.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1853,"href":"https:\/\/interactionstherapycenter.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions\/1853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interactionstherapycenter.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/interactionstherapycenter.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interactionstherapycenter.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interactionstherapycenter.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}