Psychological First Aid: Look. Listen. Link.
- Patients with COVID-19 infection need psychosocial support to minimize psychological and social burdens.
- Follow simple psychological first aid principle (look, listen, and link) in assessing the psychological needs and providing support to COVID-19 patients outlined below:
I. Look
- Check for the safety of the patient and household members.
- Identify people with obvious urgent basic needs like food and shelter .
- Identify people with serious distress reactions.
II. Listen
- Make contact with people who may need support
- Always start by introducing yourself and your role
- Use a calm tone of voice
- Ask people’s needs and concerns
- Don’t interrupt them frequently, or pressure them to talk
- Use non-verbal communication that show that you are listening (in person- head nodding, on phone call – voice ‘ehe’ to acknowledge you are following and understand) e.g.:
- Repeat what they said and clarify if there is anything that you didn’t understand
- Give time for answers, tolerate silence
- If they are very anxious, help them feel calm by teaching them to take deep breaths slowly
III. Link:
- Help people address basic needs and access to services such as food, water, social services, information
- Help people cope with their problems
- Identify what helped them most in previous difficult times and encourage them to use those strategies
- Identify supports in their lives and find a way they can maintain connection with them while maintaining physical distancing
- Give appropriate factual information, be honest what you know and what you don’t know as there is a lot that we don’t know about COVID-19
- Connect with loved ones and their social support systems including religious services