Workshop: people with mental disabilities in disaster and emergency situations The workshop has been held at the University of Innsbruck, Psychology Department on September 30th 2016. Participants came from 4 different organisations and were mainly leading personnel. All experts had more than ten years of experience in the field. In the workshop, we focused on the following topics Input about EUNAD-IP Collection of practice examples and experience exchange Development and discussions of training needs based on the practice examples Summary of workshop results Perceived Challenges in emergency and disaster situations with people with mental disabilities As we saw in the workshop, EMTs and caregivers have similar views about challenges in emergency situations and disasters but a very different emotional situation. Generally speaking, emergency personnel needs good cooperation with caregivers and a lot of information about persons with mental disabilities in order to fulfill their tasks. Caregivers on the other hand are often overwhelmed and anxious because of their enhanced feeling of responsibility and their lack of information and experience about procedures in emergency and disaster situations. People with mental disabilities themselves often have difficulties in understanding the situation and are highly dependent on the reactions and support of their caregivers. Relatives often are overprotective and do not want the mentally disabled person to get information about death. Perceived training needs and ideas for improvement Generally, the expert’s opinion is to consider each of the affected groups of helpers separately because their training needs may differ a lot. There seem to be three areas of “training” Exercises Trainings Checklists Emergency personnel and management may use exercises to gain experience in interaction with people with mental disabilities, but also to get to know caregivers and their needs, as well as to inform themselves about the specific caregiving facilities and their structures and procedures. In trainings,
Workshop: people with mental disabilities in disaster and emergency situations The workshop has been held at the University of Innsbruck, Psychology Department on September 30th 2016. Participants came from 4 different organisations and were mainly leading personnel. All experts had more than ten years of experience in the field. In the workshop, we focused on the following topics Input about EUNAD-IP Collection of practice examples and experience exchange Development and discussions of training needs based on the practice examples Summary of workshop results Perceived Challenges in emergency and disaster situations with people with mental disabilities As we saw in the workshop, EMTs and caregivers have similar views about challenges in emergency situations and disasters but a very different emotional situation. Generally speaking, emergency personnel needs good cooperation with caregivers and a lot of information about persons with mental disabilities in order to fulfill their tasks. Caregivers on the other hand are often overwhelmed and anxious because of their enhanced feeling of responsibility and their lack of information and experience about procedures in emergency and disaster situations. People with mental disabilities themselves often have difficulties in understanding the situation and are highly dependent on the reactions and support of their caregivers. Relatives often are overprotective and do not want the mentally disabled person to get information about death. Perceived training needs and ideas for improvement Generally, the expert’s opinion is to consider each of the affected groups of helpers separately because their training needs may differ a lot. There seem to be three areas of “training” Exercises Trainings Checklists Emergency personnel and management may use exercises to gain experience in interaction with people with mental disabilities, but also to get to know caregivers and their needs, as well as to inform themselves about the specific caregiving facilities and their structures and procedures. In trainings,
EUNAD-IP_Trainerhandbook.docx