Emotional First Aid Resources

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Today has been a very tough day across our nation.

With the tragic shootings in both Connecticut and Clackamas, each of us will feel a variety of emotions.  From anger to sadness, how we deal with the emotions of such terrible events can impact us, our loved ones and our families very specifically.

In today's post, we want to offer a couple of helpful resources to consider as we wander through these difficult days:

• Our friends at the Trauma Intervention Program train volunteers and public safety partners on a concept called "Emotional First Aid."  Its tenets include some very basic actions which include Reach Out, Protect, Reassure, Organize and Reinforce.  For some basic definition of these concepts, click this link:   http://whentragedystrikes.org/the5emotionalfirstaidskills.html 
• Public Broadcasting has put together a great piece on tips for talking with children about violence.  The link to this article may be found by clicking this link:  http://www.pbs.org/parents/talkingwithkids/news/talking.html
• The Disaster Distress Helpline is available at 1-800-985-5990.  Their website is located at  http://disasterdistress.samhsa.gov/ and you can text TALKWITHUS to 66746
• Here in Washington and Oregon, we also have a great Information & Referral resource called 2-1-1 which has a website at www.211info.org. You can call 2-1-1 from 8a-6p on Monday-Friday in order to get connected with resources that may help you cope with how you are feeling about these incidents.  
• If you are a teacher or parent, there are some resources available for dealing with school shootings on this website:  http://crisisresponse.promoteprevent.org/

Trauma and crisis is not to be taken lightly. With the already existing stress of the holiday season, we hope that each of you will focus on caring for yourselves and each other during these challenging times.