After a large disaster here in the San Francisco Bay Area, many of us will find that our nonprofits need to provide additional services to our communities that have been devastated. That support can take an emotional toll on those of us providing the services, especially when we are not used to responding to emergencies. Prepare and protect yourself psychologically in case of emergency or disaster. Learn how to identify and understand the common reactions to disaster.

You will learn:

• Specific, practical skills to increase personal resilience, improve coping, and manage stress.

• How to increase your confidence and effectiveness in communicating with others in the aftermath of a disaster.

• Communication skills that can increase cooperation and help you respond to difficult survivor reactions.

Dr. Elizabeth McMahon, PhD is a clinical psychologist. For over 30 years, she worked at Kaiser-Permanente Psychiatry running crisis groups, providing crisis intervention and triage, offering evening and weekend on-call psychiatric services to the emergency room, and creating and leading groups for anxiety, panic, stress and other issues.

Now in private practice in San Francisco, she specializes in brief, effective therapy for anxiety, panic, fears, burnout, and stress. She co-created the SF NERT training curriculum for Psychological First Aid skills and teaches psychological first aid to community members throughout the greater bay area.

This training on Psychological First Aid is funded by the SF Department of Public Health, provided by SFCARD and adapted for the needs of VOAD members. Upon completion of the course, you’ll receive a certificate of completion for your participation.

Who Should Attend:

Service providers, non-profits and faith based institutions.

Thank you to the Department of Public Health for funding this training, SFCARD for providing the training and the American Red Cross for hosting us. Light refreshments will be provided by AT&T.