Coping With a Major Personal Crisis (Pamphlet)
Download: View Document Editions of this pamphlet have been used in Australian and overseas disasters over the last 30 years. The information in the pamphlet
A meeting of the minds needed for warnings to work. The Age. Opinion 6th Aug 2009
Warnings about imminent disasters have to be tailored appropriately to penetrate denial, desire for constancy, and magical thinking. The piece considers how warnings should be
Disaster syndrome in Encyclopedia of Stress. Ed. George Fink. New York: Academic Press
Disaster syndrome is the forgotten opposite of fight and flight. It has been known as psychic shock, General Adaptation Syndrome, and Conservation-Withdrawal syndrome. It underlies
The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria. Med J Aust 141:291-300
Consequences in survivors of the horrific Ash Wednesday bushfires are described according to physical, psychological (perceptual and emotional), and social manifestations in different phases of
Bushfire reflections. . Stress Points; Newsletter for the Australasian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. pp 7-8
Twenty years after the Ash Wednesday bushfires, with bushfires raging again in Victoria, I note that traumatology has come a long way. First, it has
A conceptual framework for understanding the impact of disasters. The Australian Clinical Psychologist. 15:12-18
The 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria, Australia, were seminal in my traumatology learning. This paper describes the need to be cognisant of physical, psychological
Survivor guilt. in Encyclopedia of Stress. Ed. George Fink. New York: Academic Press
Survivor guilt was first described in Holocaust survivors, but it applies to all traumatic situations. Its physical, psychological and social aspects are described. Reasons for
Beyond Belief: a human strategy for survival. The Age Op-Ed p 11
Where was God during the tsunami? Where is God in Darfur? Where was God in Rwanda? Cambodia? The Holocaust? A divergence of desire and fact
Clinical Observations of Causers and Victims of Motor Vehicle Incidents: Brief Report
Motor vehicle incidents (MVI’ s) cause more death and injury than wars, acts of terrorism, and disasters put together. Their major cause is ‘human error’.
Emergency Management Australia. Disasters. Guidelines for Psychological Service Practice; Mental Health Practitioners Guide (for disasters). Emergency Management Australia. 2003. Hard copy available from Emergency Management Australia
This is a definitive guide to psychological service providers in disasters in Australia, published by Emergency Management Australia. It utilises the wholist perspective, that is,
The human costs to staff from closure of a general hospital: an example of the effects of the threat of unemployment and fragmentation of a valued work structure. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 35:150-154
The closure of a major public hospital had significant effects on the medical and other staff. Special stressors were the perceived meaninglessness of the project
The experience of a mental health team involved in the early phase of a disaster. Aust and NZ J Psychiatry 18:354-358
The reactions of a volunteer mental health team which convened in the aftermath of the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfire are reported. A questionnaire designed to
Diagnosis and treatment of helper stresses, traumas, and illnesses. In C Figley (Ed.). Treating Compassion Fatigue
Compassion strain, compassion fatigue, secondary post-traunatic stress and secondary PTSD are defined among the wide range of helper symptoms. Symptoms are as wide ranging as
Survival Strategies: A framework for understanding secondary traumatic stress and coping in helpers. In C Figley (Ed.) Compassion fatigue: Coping with Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder in Those Who Treat the Traumatized
In order to understand the secondary traumatic stress (STS) reactions of those who deal with traumatized people, it is necessary to understand the responses of
