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Psychosocial First Aid Peer Support Training on 30-31January 2023 in Geneva | FD Consultants & CCH

Limited number of registrations

On Monday 30 and Tuesday 31 January 2023, FD Consultants and CoCreate Humanity will propose an exceptional training in Geneva, Switzerland.


WHAT IS THE PSYCHOLOGICAL FIRST AID (PFA) PEER SUPPORT TRAINING?


PFA Peer Support is an evidence-informed support aimed specifically at equipping non-specialist personnel to offer basic mental health first aid to colleagues in distress in a way that promotes their coping strategies.


A PFA Peer Support progamme offers a sustainable and economical solution to staff wellbeing. It improves organisational culture by providing skills, knowledge and confidence for staff to manage mental health issues and deal with them quickly, and challenges stigma.


By providing PFA Peer Support training staff become more informed and confident when speaking about mental health and wellbeing, can identify early warning signs, and signpost colleagues to the most appropriate help. Therefore, reducing sickness levels, achieving quicker recovery rates, and improving staff performance and motivation.


Objectives of the PFA Peer Support training:

A. To cover an introduction to peer support and psychosocial first aid

B. Cover scenarios encountered in the humanitarian sector

C. To train humanitarian aid workers from different organisations at an individual level

D. To provide a certificate of participation


Aims of the PFA Peer Support training:

  • Giving staff the knowledge and confidence to provide support to their colleagues during or after difficult or traumatic events

  • Understanding the neuroscience and physiology of the stress response

  • Identify early warning signs and triggers

  • Promote recovery and reduce the risk of harm to mental ill health

  • Differentiate between stress, anxiety, burnout, compassion fatigue, trauma and vicarious trauma

  • Provide psycho-education to stabilise and support staff

  • Conducting a basic risk assessment

  • Refer to professional services if necessary

  • Develop self-care strategies

  • Raise awareness of mental health issues and reduce stigma

This workshop is a two day training programme.

Day one focuses on the theory of mental health, recognising signs and triggers, identifying mental health disorders, appropriate signposting, and conducting risk assessments. Day two has a more practical approach, and supports participants in conducting helpful and empathetic support sessions. Case studies referred to are current, relevant to the sector, and fit for purpose.


Care for the PFA peer supporter


FD Consultants recommend trained PFA peer supporters receive monthly supervision sessions. This is a space that allows peer supporters to discuss challenging cases, receive further guidance on supporting individuals, and further psycho-education. Additionally, supervision sessions can monitor and protect the peer supporter’s mental health, from risks such as, vicarious trauma when dealing with difficult cases.


It is also possible to offer individual check-in sessions if peer supporters need a psychological professional for additional guidance.


When imbedding PFA peer support programmes into an organisation, FD Consultants can offer vetting of peer supporters, PFA refresher training, and regular ongoing supervision support. We have also trained peer supporters to successfully facilitate group wellbeing sessions.



WHEN, WHERE and HOW ?


The two-day training will take place in Switzerland on Monday 30 and Tuesday 31 January 2023.

From 09:00 to 12:30 and 14:00 to 17:00 - with 15 minutes break in the morning and the afternoon.


Limited number of registrations : 18 people

Venue: Ifage, Place des Augustins 19, 1205 Geneva - Room 401

By public transportation from Geneva Cornavin train station:

Tram 18 towards Grand-Lancy, Palettes - stop Genève, Augustins + 2 min walk

Tram 15 towards Grand-Lancy, Palettes - stop Genève, Uni-Mail + 7 min walk

Bus 1 towards Trônes, Hôpital Trois-Chênes - stop Genève, Pont d'Arve + 6 min walk


Training price: 600 CHF

Please register at info@cocreatehumanity.org

Your registration is confirmed at reception of your payment on CCH's bank account.

Name of account: CoCreate Humanity, Geneva

IBAN: CH29 0900 0000 1525 2475 2

BIC | SWIFT: POFICHBEXXX

PostFinance Ltd

Mingerstrasse 20

3030 Bern - Switzerland

- TWINT (Switzerland only) : 079 369 30 60 or TWINT QR code.











FD CONSULTANTS AND COCREATE HUMANITY: AN AMAZING PARTNERSHIP


FD Consultants is a global psychological health consultancy. We specialise in trauma care and critical incident support for the humanitarian development and the human rights sector, emergency first responders, and mental health charities.


FD consultants support organisations and individuals who may be suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), vicarious trauma, burnout and stress with a range of services. FD Consultants have over 50 associates and speak over 26 languages.


FD Consultants style of training is educational, relational and participatory. We offer in-person training and have also adapted all our materials to offer online training. We have been offering training for many years, reaching staff in over 100 countries, and can provide training in several languages. We are a global psychological health service and therefore adapt our trainings to respect different cultures, taking into account gender, race, and other diversity considerations, offering an intersectional approach.


Fiona Dunkley, Founder of FD Consultants

BACP (Senior Accred.) EMDR. ESTSS. UKRCP

Fiona became passionate about caring for the carers of our world and therefore founded FD Consultants, a global psychological health consultancy. Fiona Dunkley is a senior accredited BACP psychotherapist, trauma specialist, trainer, supervisor and mediator. She has presented on TV and radio as a mental health specialist, published several articles and speaks at many global conferences on psychosocial support.


Her book Psychosocial Support for Humanitarian Aid Workers: A Roadmap of Trauma and Critical Incident Care (Dunkley, 2018) is well known in the humanitarian sector and is often used as a reference book for organisations when setting up duty of care and trauma management programmes to support staff. It contains personal case studies and is a guide for anyone whose work exposes them to trauma. https://tinyurl.com/ydayx5le


FD Consultants' Trainers


All FD Consultants’ trainers are accredited psychotherapists and specialise in trauma care. Each facilitator has over 10 years’ experience, having supported individuals from the humanitarian aid sector, emergency first responders and mental health charities. Our trainers live and work globally and speak over 26 languages. Trainers are experienced at facilitating wellbeing workshops for staff, pre and post assignment consultations, psychological screening and debriefs, and counselling services.


Our diverse team have supported individuals and organisations impacted by terrorism, natural disasters, sexual exploitation, abuse, war and civil unrest, bereavement, self-harming, relationship issues, gender-based violence and other traumatic incidents. Many of our trainers have previous careers such as, working in the humanitarian aid sector, supporting asylum seekers and refugees, human right lawyers, lecturers, forensics and medical personnel, critical incident debriefers, expert witnesses and legal advisers, safeguarding, and psychiatric social work. Therefore, we come with a wealth of knowledge and experience. Addtionally, since all our trainers are psychotherapists, first and foremost, we can offer support to participants if needed, and share our indepth experience of psychological support for all staff.


CoCreate Humanity (CCH) - Hélène Helene Ros, Sébastien Couturier and Christoph Hensch

The purpose of CoCreate Humanity is to work as a community of humanitarian peers, providing and promoting integral, psychosocial and holistic solutions for healthy, inspired and effective humanitarian workers worldwide.


CoCreate Humanity aims to support individual humanitarian workers individually and collectively to advocate for and co-creatively influence the organizational culture of how we in the sector deal with the impact of violence and the resulting trauma, injury and loss of life. CoCreate Humanity also aims to support organizations and to work in partnership with others to implement such a ‘Culture of Care’, which should be reflected at all levels, in organizational strategies, policies, procedures and operations.


Our projects and initiatives with individual aid workers and organizational partners are as follows:

  • Individual support: helping to ensure the physical and psychosocial safety of humanitarian workers before, during and after missions, through discussions and trainings

  • Building a community of support: to help build resilience through mutual support, and to bring people in need together in face-to-face and virtual events (bringing aid workers or anyone interested together in webinars, conferences and workshops).

  • Partnerships: facilitate access to a wide range of professional support services, and share information relevant to the healing and reintegration of humanitarian workers affected by trauma, burnout, stress and death

  • Advocacy and awareness: to remove the taboo of trauma and induce a culture of change towards caring and compassionate work practices, and to bring about a "culture of care" at the organizational level

  • Duty to remember every December 17: recognizing and commemorating those who have lost their lives in a humanitarian mission, who are or have been injured, imprisoned or kidnapped.

How do we do this?

  • By creating and maintaining an inclusive community of humanitarian peers for mutual support;

  • By providing support services to humanitarian peers;

  • Through advocacy and outreach to employers in the humanitarian sector and the general public at large (speaking with leadership, organizing conferences and music, art and food events);

  • Establishing and maintaining a capital fund to ensure ongoing financial support (setting up a structure for earmarked funds to support program delivery, research and individual support costs).

Our individual biographies here.


WE LOOK FORWARD TO WELCOMING YOU IN GENEVA!








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