Trauma: first response to help children

This practice paper aims to equip practitioners with knowledge about the ways disasters can influence a child’s ecology and the importance of targeted support for children’s resilience and recovery in the short and long term.

Part two of two: This paper provides guidance to practitioners offering psychological first aid with infants, children and families in the context of a disaster.

This resource focuses on how to look after your own wellbeing as a practitioner or worker when supporting children and families after a disaster.

This paper provides practice guidance for addressing the immediate and long-term impacts of disasters on infant and child mental health using multifaceted approaches that promote resilience and mental health recovery.

This resource explains the importance of connection, emotional literacy and environment in helping children feel safe, and how regulation can be achieved through the body using sensory- and movement-based exercises, along with fun, relaxing and mindfulness activities.

This resource demonstrates the importance of encouraging play and creative expression to help children unpack, explore and process difficult experiences like disaster. Creative expression is encouraged as a way for children to communicate about complex emotions and feelings, especially when they might be difficult to articulate verbally

Re-establishing routines and setting boundaries and expectations are important for restoring children's sense of stability and safety after a disaster, especially when they have to spend time away from their parents or home.

In addition to the support of extended family, friends and the learning community, responses from governments and specialist mental health services plus digital resources are important to the successful recovery of children and families after a disaster.

This resource focuses on how practitioners can support children after disasters. It identifies strategies for engaging with parents and using a holistic approach that recognises and tailors support to each family’s unique needs, to enhance the wellbeing, resilience and recovery of infants and children who experience disasters.