Psychological first aid is humane, practical support for somebody in acute distress. It is not counselling, not therapy, and not an interview. It does not require any clinical training, and it does not involve asking anybody to describe what happened to them.
Prepare. Before you approach, know what is available: where the medical help is, where the missing-persons list is, who provides shelter, food, a phone charger, a lavatory. Most of what a distressed person needs in the first hours is practical.
Look. Who is obviously injured, who needs immediate protection, who is in danger of harming themselves, who is alone. Do not force yourself on somebody who does not want contact — offer, and stay nearby.
Listen. Introduce yourself. Ask what they need rather than what happened. Sit at their level. Give them time and silence; do not fill it. Do not interrupt, do not correct their account, do not tell them how they should feel. Distress after a terrible event is a normal response, and saying so plainly helps.
Link. Practical help first: contacting family, a safe place, medication, information about what is going to happen next. Give accurate information and say honestly when you do not know something. Then connect them to services and, where possible, hand over to a named person rather than to a leaflet.
Do not.
- Do not press somebody to talk about what happened. Being made to recount a traumatic event in the first hours can do harm.
- Do not promise anything you cannot deliver, including that everything will be all right.
- Do not say you know how they feel, and do not compare it to your own experience.
- Do not take a photograph, and do not let them be filmed.
- Do not discuss what they told you with anybody who does not need it.
Children need a familiar adult, simple honest words about what has happened, and to be kept with siblings. Do not tell a child a comforting untruth about a death; they find out, and they stop trusting adults at the worst possible moment.
Source. World Health Organization, War Trauma Foundation and World Vision International, Psychological first aid: Guide for field workers, https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241548205 ; WHO mhGAP, https://www.who.int/teams/mental-health-and-substance-use/treatment-care/mental-health-gap-action-programme
What this is not. Reading, not training, and not mental health care.