Top Highlights

• Crisis intervention should not be considered treatment but, rather, as a means of fostering resilience, that is, helping people to rebound from adversity, and must be advertised as such.
• PFA may be simply defined as a supportive and compassionate presence designed to stabilize and mitigate acute distress, as well as facilitate access to continued care.
• Expectancy refers to the view that the current state of psychological disequilibrium is an adjustment reaction representing a current perturbation; therefore, the goal of intervention is to address that current adjustment reaction, not cure any preexisting psychiatric syndrome,
• Of the three operative constructs, expectancy appeared to be the most effective.
• “in the first hours after a disaster, at least 25% of the population may be stunned and dazed, apathetic and wandering—suffering from the disaster syndrome—especially if impact has been sudden and totally devastating. . . . At this point, psychological first aid and triage . . . are necessary”