Tsunami Lessons learnt - Psychosocial responses

The 26th December 2004 was a day of shock for millions around the world, as they were either directly affected by or heard the news of the earthquake and following tsunami waves in the Indian Ocean.

The devastation caused on this one day led to one of the largest emergency responses in history. A multitude of governments, organizations and individuals turned their focus to the needs of the affected families and communities, both in the countries directly hit by the waves and worldwide as scores of foreign visitors to the affected countries also suffered losses on this day.

The large-scale impact of the tsunami was a turning point in increasing recognition of the need for psychosocial responses. It led to the initiation of a surge of psychosocial programs and activities, which helped thousands of communities, families and individuals. The majority of the Red Cross Red Crescent societies involved in the psychosocial responses focused both on immediate psychosocial needs in the emergency response phase, whilst also committing to long term psychosocial interventions.

The psychosocial responses have assisted affected populations to recover from the losses and changes in their lives in healthy and positive ways, and helped communities to build resilience in the face of future challenges. These community-based interventions have involved community members in identifying, implementing and monitoring and evaluating appropriate activities. Schools have often been used as successful entry points to the community, given their respected and central role in the community life.

Psychosocial responses have typically included training of Red Cross Red Crescent staff and volunteers, implementation of a variety of activities, such as support groups; community restoration and reconciliation activities; play activities for children; and commemoration and remembrance activities.

The activities have aimed to address both immediate needs for psychosocial support, whilst also securing the future psychosocial health of the affected communities by empowering them with resilience and strength to cope with future challenges.

Tsunami Lessons Learnt Project

As it is only in the past twenty or so years that we have seen an increasing focus on psychosocial needs in emergency responses, we are still in the process of identifying and documenting good practices.

The International Federation Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support (PS Centre), with support from the American Red Cross, has conducted a review of the psychosocial responses to the tsunami, collecting lessons learned from the responses in the countries directly affected by the tsunami.

The project has used participatory methods of review, consulting with representatives from beneficiaries, volunteers and program staff involved in psychosocial interventions and from country and international headquarters of Red Cross Red Crescent Movement partners and other psychosocial partners, such as UNICEF, Save the Children and the International Medical Corps.

A database of psychosocial resources and materials focusing especially on the response to tsunami has been established as a result of the project, and the lessons learned have been used to develop a handbook on how to plan, implement and monitor and evaluate psychosocial interventions.

This website is a resource for anyone interested specifically in the psychosocial response to the tsunami. For information regarding the IFRC tsunami response as a whole, please click here.

This website consists of

Main Lessons Learnt:  Read a summary of the main lessons learned from the psychosocial response to the tsunami, with particular focus on

More detail is given on each of these topics in the Handbook on psychosocial interventions

Database: Access key journal articles, training material, program descriptions, evaluation reports, and documentation produced as part of the lessons learned project.

Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge the valuable input and support given to this entire process of collecting lessons learned on the psychosocial response to the tsunami, with special mention of all who were visited in the tsunami-affected countries of Thailand, the Maldives, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India.

This includes members of the affected populations, Red Cross Red Crescent Movement volunteers and staff, representatives of other organisations working with psychosocial interventions, and representatives of governmental departments.

Gratitude is also extended to colleagues of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies who participated in and supported earlier and completed psychosocial interventions who have contributed to this project.