Frequently Asked Questions:
Q. What is unique about PsyCorps?
A. Often after critical incidents and disasters, mental health care tends to be reactive and less organized than primary care. PsyCorps is working to increase the level of disaster mental healthcare preparedness in the U.S. and around the world. We are building a global network of regional psychological support teams who are prepared in advance of a disaster to mobilize and respond to the emotional needs of survivors and their caregivers.
We realize that Western psychology must be locally interpreted to be relevant or appropriate in many regions of the world. In order to be effective, psychological first aid must be culturally sensitive and applicable. While other relief organizations seek to provide outside service to survivors of disaster, it is PsyCorps’ mission to help regions prone to natural or man made disaster create and develop their own teams, comprised of nationals, to provide psychological first aid services directly to survivors, first responders and caregivers in the aftermath of critical incidents and disaster. Our focus is to empower locals to be enabled to deliver these services directly. The vision of PsyCorps is to provide mental health care that is tailored to the specific group, situation, and ideology of the people being served.
Following disaster, there are numerous complex mental health issues and situations that emerge. We realize, based on clinical experience and accumulating research, that one model may be better suited than another for a given aspect of a critical incident. In order to meet the diverse mental health needs of disaster survivors and caregivers, PsyCorps draws from a variety of interventions and models, to deliver the most appropriate and effective care. The PsyCorps model offers a flexible, multimodal approach for the provision of psychological first aid and triage interventions. This model is called Flexible Psychological First Aid – FPFA.
Q. What is the mission of PsyCorps?
A. PsyCorps provides a professional, culturally appropriate and coordinated response to the psychological impact of natural and man-made disasters internationally and domestically. We promote and deliver psychological first aid services from a position of preparedness, adaptability, and sensitivity to cultural diversity.
Q. Will my donation to PsyCorps be tax deductible?
A. PsyCorps is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization. Charitable contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
Q. How does PsyCorps ensure that its practices are appropriate to the diverse ethnic and religious communities it serves?
A. We value the basic human dignity of the people we serve. We embrace differences in culture, spirituality, belief systems and trauma recovery and grieving processes. As a psychologically-based organization, we approach diversity with a professional stance in the delivery of services, incorporating significant beliefs or customs that are relevant for the individuals, groups or communities that we serve.
Q. How can I volunteer with PsyCorps?
A. The mission of PsyCorps is realized through the energy, compassion, and commitment of our outstanding volunteers. As a volunteer-based organization, PsyCorps seeks volunteers with a wide variety of interest and talents.
PsyCorps' volunteers enable us to provide primary distress and bereavement support to disaster survivors and secondary support and training to local caregivers, civic and religious leaders, and mental health care providers who serve disaster survivors.
PsyCorps teams are currently being developed to include a mental health professional who serves as the clinical director for the team and volunteer Befrienders who are trained in psychological first aid. Mental Health Professionals are psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and mental health counselors, licensed to practice in their state, region or province.
A volunteer application for the mental health professional team leader can be found on our volunteer page.
Q. Where have PsyCorps team members provided psychological support and training?
A. PsyCorps team members have provided mental health care and training in the Gulf Coast of the U.S., Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Bosnia, Uganda, and India.
