Anne Parry Honored with TW Peacemaker Award

On September 19th, TW's free public lecture and discussion series, Meditations on Activism, now in its eighth year, hosted Anne Parry, Director of the Office of Violence Prevention at the Chicago Department of Public Health and long time anti-violence educator, activist, researcher and executive. She spoke about her latest work, Psychological First Aid, a guide to supporting well-being during difficult times. Ms. Parry was inspiring and instructive, and provided us with concrete tools to provide positive, pro-active healing responses to those who have been exposed to violence or experienced trauma of any kind.

Ms. Parry emphasized that psychological first aid is global in nature, and can be provided by and for everyone. Offering soothing, calm and practical help immediately, and in the days and months following trauma, assists healing and can help to prevent the unfortunate cycle of "hurt people hurting others."

In a clear and dynamic presentation, Ms. Parry explained the key elements to psychological first aid (PFA):

Physical contact and engagement-look, listen, respond
Provide safety and comfort-in an appropriate way take steps to increase safety, by offering, for example, water, clothes, a nap, whatever the person needs to feel comfortable
Stabilization-providing routine, basics, what is familiar and comforting
Information gathering-find out more about what happened in order to provide what the person might need, being careful not to "grill" the person insensitively
Social supports
Practical assistance
Support with long term coping

The presentation succeeded in reassuring us that we can help others in stressful situations, and with these clear and simple tools we can become more responsive allies and friends. Violence, death, accidents, illness, loss-we often witness trauma and need the skills to be helpful. Thank you Ms. Parry, again, for your guidance and leadership in this area.