Stress

On this page:

• Stress and trauma management
• Debriefing aid workers - a comprehensive manual

Stress and Trauma Management 

Always take qualified medical advice if you are suffering from stress or trauma, or believe you may be.

There are many differing opinions among professionals about stress and trauma management.  Here are some helpful resources to introduce the subject:

InterHealth, a well-known UK medical charity, has a page of useful links at http://www.interhealth.org.uk/stressandtrauma.htm#links, including some short summaries and useful tools for busy aid workers.

An online Stress Management course is provided here by the UN Department of Safety and Security.  You just click through about 20 questions.  Along the way it gives a good, basic introduction to stress and how to manage it.

A UNHCR guide called Managing the Stress of Humanitarian Emergencies (written in 2001) is at http://www.the-ecentre.net/resources/e_library/doc/managingStress.PDF or via the UNHCR e-Library index page at http://www.the-ecentre.net/resources/e_library/index.cfm.

ICRC has published Humanitarian Action and Armed Conflict: Coping with Stress, by Barthold Bierens de Haan - it can be ordered from www.icrc.org.

Debriefing Aid Workers: A Comprehensive Manual

This manual is available for order from People In Aid at www.peopleinaid.org (click on Publications, then Executive Summaries).  It was written for People In Aid by Dr Debbie Lovell-Hawker, a Principal Clinical Psychologist based at Oxford University's Psychiatry Department.