• Frontline health and industry workers
• Quarantined and those who tested positive for COVID-19
• Deceased relatives of COVID-19 victims
• Service users with ongoing medications and therapy
• Displaced overseas and migrant workers
There may be situations where someone needs much more advanced support
than PFA alone. Know your limits and get help from others, such as medical
personnel (if available), your colleagues or other people in the area, local
authorities, or community and religious leaders. In the list above, we have
enumerated people who need more immediate advanced support. People in
these situations need medical or other help as a priority to save lives.
When PFA is Provided
Although people may need access to help and support for a long time after
an event, PFA is aimed to help people who have been very recently affected
by a crisis event. You can provide PFA when you first have contact with very
distressed people, usually during or immediately after an event. However, it
may sometimes be days or weeks after, depending on how long the event
lasted and how severe it was.
Training Module on the Right to Mental Health for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)
Aside from the victims of calamities, war, conflicts, and disasters, PFA can also
be given to those who have been victims of abuse, exploitation, and other
daily life stresses that can trigger a wide range of emotional and behavioral
instability. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, vulnerable groups have been
recognized as needing immediate and sustained support such as the:
Where PFA is Provided
You can offer PFA wherever it is safe enough for you to do so. This is often
in community settings, such as at the scene of an accident, or places where
distressed people are served, such as health centers, shelters or camps,
schools, and distribution sites for food or other types of help. Ideally, try to
provide PFA where you can have some privacy to talk with the person when
appropriate. For people who have been exposed to certain types of crisis events
such as sexual violence, privacy is essential for confidentiality and respect for
the person’s dignity.
The Minimum Health Standards due to the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the
emergence of virtual platforms being utilized to provide psychological support
such as PFA. However, although the ease and comfort of the virtual platform
can be said for some clients, the lack of a stable and consistent internet
connectivity in the country has led to further distress among those in need of
PFA specially during the pandemic.
6