Syllabus
● Introduction: history of the subject, current state – in Czechia and abroad, trends in the development of psychosocial support systems, Critical Incident Stress Management, Peer Support Counselling, trauma therapy options (EMDR, trauma seminars, TF-CBT, etc.).
● Individual victim of an emergency: main psychological regularities, stages of experience, case study – terrorism/holding hostages (Czech journalists in Iraq, April 2004), gun threats.
● Psychosocial support for victims of mass casualty incidents: types of mass casualty incidents, victims, main psychological regularities, work with victims, work with professionals (police officers, fire brigade, army, paramedics, journalists) – group debriefing, different techniques, case studies – 2002 Prague floods, 2004 Madrid train bombings, Beslan school siege, 2005 Egypt bombings, 2005 Tsunami, Vesina tram accident, 2008 Studénka railway accident, and so on.
● Organisation of psychosocial support systems in Czechia: psychosocial support as part of emergency disaster assistance, psychosocial support teams of the Ministry of the Interior, work with mass communication, creation of a European network of psychosocial support. Comparison with the systems of other European countries. Cooperation within the Integrated Rescue System/IRS (governmental and non-governmental organisations). Police system for assistance to victims of crimes and emergencies. Fire brigade system for posttraumatic care. Disaster Victim Identification.
● Psychology in crisis management, crisis communication and risk communication, psychological services within the IRS exercises (simulation of terrorist attacks and incidents with a large number of victims). Training of Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff before leaving for critical areas, training of Czech Airlines staff, etc. ● Recent case studies – psychological aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic, tornado in the South Moravian region, etc.
● Final lecture: Presentation of seminar papers, discussion on specific topics.
● Topics are chosen based on the needs of the students and the teacher.
Annotation
The course introduces a new area of applied psychology. Its subject is emergency psychology, with an emphasis on crises and mass casualty incidents.