Diversity and Training Delivery Trends in Psychological First Aid: Implications for Educators and Researchers

Abstract

Psychological First Aid (PFA) refers to evidence-supported intervention by non-mental health professionals to assist those affected by disaster to re-achieve stability through a stepwise process (Ruzek et al., 2007). This study reviewed the academic discourse regarding PFA through all available abstracts in the Web of Science database from 1975 to 2021with the keyword searches for psychological first aid. The corpus linguistic analyses using #Lancsbox 6.0 and Sketch Engine explored the usage rate of psychosocial first aid and how the PFA was used. The study also examined race/ethnicity, learning delivery except for online, and online training delivery methods within the PFA academic articles. The change of online PFA training delivery with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic was analyzed using Tau. The study found a substantive discourse on PFA service and delivery but little on race and ethnicity. There was a significant increase in PFA online training since COVID-19 started (Tau = 0.667, p = 0.041, SETau = 0.333). The study also included the implications for practitioners and researchers as the significant need to address multicultural competency in PFA is needed.