Preparing students for providing psychological first aid at civil defense courses

Abstract

The article analyzes the possibilities of the academic discipline «Civil Defense» regarding the possibility of training students to provide psychological first aid in emergencies. Currently, the educational sector of Ukraine is creating a system for monitoring and protecting all participants in the educational process in order to alleviate the psychological impact of the armed conflict and create a safe educational environment. The analyzed measures introduced by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and other organizations are aimed at helping Ukrainians learn to control their psycho-emotional state, avoid fear, panic attacks or even post-traumatic syndrome. The results of the experience of studying the topic «Psychological first aid in emergency situations» at civil defense classes for students of pedagogical specialties are given. It is noted that the provision of psychological first aid does not require special professional psychological training, since its important characteristic is simplicity, and therefore, the knowledge obtained as a result of studying psychological-pedagogical and professional training disciplines is quite sufficient. Those educational platforms that provide an opportunity to gain knowledge on the provision of psychological first aid were analyzed and received feedback from students, in particular, the platform Academy of Sustainability, Prometheus, EdEra, Zpromilo!, the training course for educators «First psychological aid to participants in the educational process during and after completion military actions». It was concluded that the knowledge gained by students as a result of participation in projects, conferences, online lectures and online courses of informal education on psychological help turned out to be very popular and useful for the professional activity of teachers.