Role of the Counselor in Emergency Management Teams

Role Of The Counselor In Emergency Management Teams

Capella University

Lisa Giovannelli

Instances of disastrous catastrophes have been experienced in the human race due to their interaction with the environment. Many disasters have emerged from natural causes and some are due to negligence, civil wars, human animosity or terrorism. The traumatic nature of accidents experienced during catastrophic events has attracted properly trained disaster management teams. The teams should not only comprise of medical practitioners but also professional counselors who can easily realize their roles and bring sanity and hope to the bereaved and the injured. The counselors in traumatic events must be well rounded and be in a position to tirelessly execute their duties (Margison and Shore, 2009).

Role of the Counselors in Managing Emergencies

Emergencies that have resulted from natural calamities such as earth quakes, floods, wild fires, wild winds and tsunamis are always handled carefully due to their sensitivity and catastrophic nature. Counselors in these events should ensure they pitch tents in the affected areas and give the subjects hope of surviving from the calamity. Counselors need to listen to the affected individuals actively and show empathy and support so that they do not feel lonely and neglected. Those counselors in Emergency management teams should appropriately be able to validate the feeling experienced by victims. This makes victims have hope of surviving since what is in their mind will appear known to people supporting them (Cooper et al., 2009). These counselors must also be strong and able to affirm to the affected victims that the situation they are in is normal, they are in control and victims will get over it in a short time. Professional counselors have to offer education to the victims about how to gain a quick recovery without distress. This will normalize the situation and remove the fear of stigmatization and intimidation from the patients. Counselors in traumatic emergency management team, must be in a position to help victims set their priorities right and guide them through these priorities. This will reduce survivors’ distress and prevent them from having a feeling of hopelessness (Harrold, 2009)

Interview with an Emergency Professional

Blanca Allen, who works at Geo Care (a mental health facility for inmates) as a RN is on the crisis team for both natural disaster crisis and mental health crisis. A crisis management plan Allen explains is established by both the emergency response team and the treatment team with the intent to assist patients after a natural disaster or a crisis situation. Employees at Geo care typically deal with emotional crisis almost on the daily basis.

There are seven phases to an emotional emergency plan. The first is the Fact phase: this is where facts of what occurred during the incident. The second phase is the Thought phase: Patients/inmates are encouraged to state their first or dominant thoughts while going in the crisis. The

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