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Monday, January 10, 2005

Psychological Intervention for Disaster Victims - Volunteers Needed

Urgent Appeal for Volunteer Expertise in Psychological Intervention:

Dear friends,
We have received an appeal from the Center for Psychology in Malaysia for professional trainers/psychologists in the area of psychological crisis & disaster intervention (including crisis counseling, psychological trauma support, disaster intervention, disaster psychology). These would be people who would be willing to volunteer their time for about a week or more in Malaysia.

The immediate goal is to equip teams in Malaysia interested in helping in short-term psychological relief efforts for thousands of children and adults in areas most badly affected by the tsunami i.e. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India.
The long-term goal is to explore ways to sustain psychological relief work in the above areas.

The Center is exploring the following possibilities for input from experts from the United States:
1. training Malaysian practitioners on how to train paraprofessionals, aid workers and volunteers in providing immediate psychological support to tsunami victims. (3-4 day training)
2. an introductory training to aid workers and volunteers already going or considering going to the affected areas (half-day training)
3. facilitating a seminar on exploring ways in helping rebuild the mental health infrastructure, community capacity-building, and the reconstruction of individual well-being in the affected areas (one-day seminar)

This request is still at the proposal stage. However, the Center will fund transportation and accommodation costs for 2 -3 experts.
Ideally, we are looking for American experts already in the region of South Asia. Having worked with people in Asia would be a plus. The training provided needs to keep in mind the geographical and cultural aspects of the affected region.

The center has received multiple requests to help in the manner of crisis counseling, but there is very limited resources and expertise to turn to in Malaysia itself. Any ideas you may have in dealing with this massive tragedy is welcomed at this stage. Finally, if you know of funding agencies willing to provide funds for mental health efforts in these affected areas, please let us know.

Contact us by email at quickhelp_world@yahoo.com

Regards.
Brendan J. Gomez & Patricia Ang
Pennsylvania State University

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