Along with the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the faculty, the Faculty of Psychology UGM again held Psychological First Aid (PFA) training for the COVID-19 Survivor Volunteer Task Force Team. This Volunteer Task Force team is a team formed by the Faculty of Psychology UGM to help COVID-19 survivors in the Faculty of Psychology UGM in overcoming psychological problems. This is one of the prevention efforts by the faculty so that the fear and anxiety felt by survivors do not develop into mental health problems or disorders.
Like maintaining physical health, maintaining mental health both for yourself and your family is an important factor that must be done during the pandemic. Due to this reason, PFA has an important role to provide psychological support in critical situations, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. PFA is given not only for COVID-19 survivors, but also to those affected by COVID-19 such as those who have lost their families, lost their jobs, or those who experience psychological disorders such as feeling anxious or depressed. PFA does not have to be performed by a mental health professional. PFA can be undertaken by anyone who has been previously trained to deliver PFA.
A total of 35 students of the Faculty of Psychology UGM were trained to be able to provide PFA through online training which was held for 3 days on 2nd-4th August 2021. This training aims to equip the Faculty’s COVID-19 Survivor Volunteer Task Force Team that will help to provide psychological assistance for lecturers, students, and education staff of the Faculty of Psychology UGM who are affected by COVID-19. “This faculty’s COVID-19 Survivor Volunteer Team is different from the previous one. Now we have a referral team,” said Nurul, coordinator of COVID-19 Survivor Volunteer Task Force Team.
In this training, the team learned various knowledge about PFA such as the relationship between mental health and mental disorders, stigma related to mental health, definitions and frameworks of PFA, remote PFA, PFA for situations of loss and grieving, empathetic communication, etc. These materials were presented by various experts in their fields including Diana Setiyawati, M.HSc.Psy., Ph.D., Tri Hayuning Tyas, S.Psi., MA, Edilburga Wulan Saptandari, M.Psi., Ph.D. , Psychologist, Idei Khurnia Swasti, S.Psi., M.Psi., Psychologist, dr. Riris Andono Ahmad, MD, MPH, Ph.D., and Nurul Kusuma Hidayati, M.Psi, Psi.