Psychologically Equipped?

White Paper Series* by Alessandra Pigni

Psychologically Equipped: Practical Recommendations to Better Prepare Humanitarian Professionals for Field Missions

“The idea that psychological well-being is a luxury is right at the root of the problem. The mental health of field staff is every bit as important as their physical health. Proper preparation for the psychological stresses of field life should be taken as seriously as pre-mission medical assessments and associated measures to prevent/treat illness in the field.” (Robyn Kerrison – human rights/protection advisor, currently working in Haiti)

Over the last months I have been collecting stories, reflections and suggestions from humanitarian professionals on the importance of staff-care, pre-deployment psychological preparation, burnout prevention training, field support, coaching and mentoring and post-deployment care. HQ and field-staff have lent their voice to this white paper series, which provides an analysis of the needs in the field, as well as the types of interventions that could be of help, including mindfulness training.

Encouraged by my dear friend Jennifer Lentfer at how-matters.org the first chapter of the White Paper Series on the psychological health of the precious people who work in aid is now out! It provides the background and purpose of the whole series. I have chosen to release the twelve papers over several weeks, in order to give readers the time and space to process the material and reflect upon it.

Below is an overview of the series:

1. Provides the background and purpose of the white paper series.
2. Offers an overview of the issues in psychological health faced by aid workers before, during, and after field deployment.
3. Gives an overview of the concepts of mindfulness and how they may apply to aid work.
4. Focuses on the pre-deployment phase: recruitment and training.
5. Focuses on the importance of personal awareness in the field.
6. Explores the role of teams and team conflicts in staffʼs psychological well-being.
7. Examines the organisational culture that permeates humanitarian agencies.
8. Focuses on burnout and reaching ʻa breaking pointʼ.
9. Examines practices that support aid workers while in the field.
10. Provides an open conclusion with recommendations for action.
11. Offers a list of useful resources on staff care, psychological support and mindfulness-based interventions.

In each of the papers, the voices of aid workers in the field are included (always in italics), along with their personal stories. They discuss the staff-care needs that arise during a mission, often describing the predominantly tough “humanitarian culture” that permeates agencies. But these papers do not only collect, describe and analyse the evidence offered by frontline professionals and volunteers. Each paper also provides conclusions and suggested interventions: action points, priorities and policy changes, highlighting how the lack of training and staff-care in humanitarian programmes can turn into an occupational hazard for employees and their agencies.

In particular, the concepts and practices of mindfulness are introduced in their relevance to the problems that may arise in the field, highlighting the significant difference that they can make to standard NGO training, procedures and management. Recommendations for developing psychological awareness, better staff retention, care and support before, during and after the mission, as well as a list of useful resources can also be found in a separate section of the white paper series.

Donors and HQ staff may be particularly interested in following this white paper series. Frontline professionals who know all about burnout, stress, trauma, loneliness, isolation and depression in the field, and the urgent need of doing something about it, may recognise their voices in it. I am convinced that “changing the world starts from within”, and that successful projects on the ground derive not only from professionally competent, but also psychologically healthy staff. How we feel within ourselves has an impact on how we engage with the world. This is no small matter.

Much is to be discussed, changed and improved in our aid community around staff-care. Starting from ourselves I feel is a good place of enquiry. Feedback and comments are most welcome, and so is your participation in the Frontline Burnout Prevention Group on LinkedIn.

To download the first paper of the series please click below (the bibliography is available for download as well so you can refer back to the various sources)

#1 – Background and purpose of the white paper series.

Bibliography – A List of Useful Resources

* I would like to quote Zadie Smith in relation to writing about international relief work; she points out the significant gap between the language of development and the language of the rest of us:

“It seemed to me a shame that between the highly technical, acronym-heavy documents written within the world of development and the often saccharine self-descriptions of the church workers, there were so few people writing development stories from a human perspective. Stories that were not especially concerned with a man’s eternal soul or his statistical representation, but with his life”.

When I set out to write this White Paper Series I relied on stories from experienced professionals. I chose to interweave them with my own story, and with the relevant background literature in humanitarian psychology. I think all these elements are important. I may be taking a risk by calling it a “white paper”, and I hope this will not lead my potential readers to think that this is yet another boring and irrelevant piece of research!