Less Fearful, More Active: Psycho-education
A pensive moment at an Adapazarı primary school.
Photograph by Rana Mullan
© UNICEF Turkey 2001
In the immediate aftermath of the Gölcük earthquake, several non-governmental organisations took part in a range of psycho-educational activities designed to inform survivors’ about the psychological effects of trauma. The object being to increase the survivors’ sense of control, reducing anxiety related to the trauma and helping to prevent the development of stress reactions. The seminars were augmented with booklets, brochures and flyers designed to inform survivors about the kinds of experience people usually suffer in the wake of catastrophic events. Information about signs of disturbance requiring professional help was also included. The contents of some brochures were reprinted in newspapers or explained on national television. Within a relatively short space of time, field workers were able to disseminate the information to a large number of people within the structured environment of the seminars.
UNICEF and MONE initiated the Psycho-education (PE) programme as part of the Psycho-social School Project in order to ensure continuity of support for these activities. The material was compiled and elaborated by NET members and took the form of group seminars. The first two PE were held in June 2000 for teachers, counsellors and others who were involved in the programme. Further activities followed at schools throughout the nine affected provinces during the course of 2000 and 2001.
Following psycho-education, however, the boy came to understand the normality of his mother’s reactions under such abnormal circumstances. He eventually stopped blaming his mother and forgave her.
Psycho-education, Kocaeli, Autumn 2000
The primary objectives of the Psycho-education programme were: to give information to the teachers, parents and children on normal psychological reactions after natural disasters; to give the participants opportunities to share their reactions with the others and to show them the normality of such reactions; to form or strengthen the bond between the two systems of the school and the family; to emphasise the effective coping mechanisms and ensure their use among the attendants and to establish an environment in which the reactions of the children are normalised so that their learning and development capacities are enhanced.
The Psycho-education Programme
A teacher had lost her husband during the earthquake. When the Psycho-education programme came to her school, she brought her daughter, who had been attending another school, to the activities. They shared their earthquake experiences with the others though they had previously been unable to do so with anyone -- even between themselves.
Psycho-education, Kocaeli, Autumn 2000
Again, a cascade training model was adopted to train the school counsellors who then trained the teachers in the schools, in groups of three sessions, to implement the programme in conjunction with the counsellors, within the classroom context. The school counsellors held PE seminars with the teachers, in groups of three sessions for the children and a further two sessions with the parents. The programme had a strong social mobilisation component, aiming to improve communication and support systems amongst and within schools, between school staff and parents and with the GRC counselling services. Between March 2000 and June 2001, the PE reached one hundred and fifty thousand children, five thousand teachers and thirty-five thousand families.
Surveying The Participants
In order to evaluate the programme, a sample group of parents and children who had attended the seminars and a sample of those who had not were asked to complete an extensive questionnaire. The object was to see whether or not the seminars had any impact over and above previous sources of information. While most of the questions were related to material covered in the seminars, some were specifically designed to reveal what the participants already knew and whether they knew the information to be correct or not. These would have responses such as Yes (I agree)
or I have no idea
but they were few in number since the survey was conducted with regard to the needs of the survivor and as such the reciprocal aim of correcting any wrong opinions he or she may have had beforehand was paramount.
If the seminar was effective, it was assumed that the response Learned from the seminar I just attended
would show that the individual had successfully absorbed the information and also that responses such as I already knew it
and Learned just now, reading the questionnaire
would be less frequent. Also, the Learned just now, reading the questionnaire
responses would be less frequent among those who had attended the seminar than among those who had not. It was expected that those who were satisfied with the seminars would endorse more of the Learned from the seminar I just attended
responses, whereas less satisfied participants would endorse Learned just now reading the questionnaire
or I already knew it
more frequently.
How Successful Was The Programme?
The study found that the PE was beneficial to the parents. Most thought that the information they received would help them talk about their earthquake-related experiences with teachers and others close to them. Content was important for parents and students alike: the more topic variety a seminar had, the more impact it had. Students also found the number of activities particularly beneficial. In terms of prior access to information about the disaster, children preferred television while adults read more printed matter. However, given the wide range of sources of information outside of the project, it was clear that the PE seminars were useful. The exercise of the survey itself, proved to be very successful in focusing the survivors’ attention.
Developing The Psycho-education Programme
It would be helpful if more exercises were built into the programme for children while a wider variety of issues for discussion should be developed to accommodate parents. Additional attention could be given to the linguistic content of the interventions, fine-tuning the language used according to factors such as the age and literacy of the target groups. A questionnaire such as the one used in the survey might be reworded with items framed as questions rather than statements in order to stimulate curiosity at the outset. This is very pertinent when considering the fact that the greater part of parents taking part in these seminars were mothers. The rate of illiteracy in Turkey is higher amongst women than men and for this reason psycho-educational activities should not be restricted to the distribution of printed material but should also include lectures, additional visual material and also reserve time for questions and discussion. The participation of the audience is the key issue to ensure the retention of information presented in this context. It is important to not only increase the motivation of the participants but also to ensure that the issues are clarified and that the solutions to real problems are sought in a group atmosphere.
The fully illustrated text of Less Fearful, More Active is also available for download in print-ready pdf format. [PDF 1.25MB]
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