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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Psychological First Aid by Johns Hopkins University

4.8
stars
19,148 ratings

About the Course

Learn to provide psychological first aid to people in an emergency by employing the RAPID model: Reflective listening, Assessment of needs, Prioritization, Intervention, and Disposition. Utilizing the RAPID model (Reflective listening, Assessment of needs, Prioritization, Intervention, and Disposition), this specialized course provides perspectives on injuries and trauma that are beyond those physical in nature. The RAPID model is readily applicable to public health settings, the workplace, the military, faith-based organizations, mass disaster venues, and even the demands of more commonplace critical events, e.g., dealing with the psychological aftermath of accidents, robberies, suicide, homicide, or community violence. In addition, the RAPID model has been found effective in promoting personal and community resilience. Participants will increase their abilities to: - Discuss key concepts related to PFA - Listen reflectively - Differentiate benign, non-incapacitating psychological/ behavioral crisis reactions from more severe, potentially incapacitating, crisis reactions - Prioritize (triage) psychological/ behavioral crisis reactions - Mitigate acute distress and dysfunction, as appropriate - Recognize when to facilitate access to further mental health support - Practice self-care Developed in collaboration with Johns Hopkins Open Education Lab....

Top reviews

KG

Apr 15, 2020

A wonderful course with clear explanations and case scenarios to help reinforce learning. I was truly engaged throughout the course and felt like I learned a lot more than I anticipated when going in.

GT

Dec 19, 2019

Great structure and interactive format. Clear expectations and excellent materials. Subject was explained in an effective manner that was easily understood and applied. Very useful for any profession!

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151 - 175 of 4,521 Reviews for Psychological First Aid

By Colleen B

Jun 19, 2020

I really enjoyed learning this course and found it to be rewarding. The content is very well explained by Dr. George Everly who is a pioneer in the field. He gave some very valuable information and was very thorough in explaining the RAPID model. I feel more confident in my skills to help people in times of adversity and will happily offer my help to disaster relief services in the future. I may see what else Dr. Everly teaches because I think he is an outstanding professor and has such a great demeanor. Thank you.

By Maria M R

Jun 3, 2020

As a 22 year-old portuguese aspiring journalist and writer, I feel that the knowledge I gained will be essential to my daily life. As a journalist and also as my grandma's main caregiver (she suffers from Alzheimer's disease), I am sure that exploring the intricacies of the human mind and interpersonal interactions, especially with regard to moments of fragility, is imperative. In this way, I hereby come to thank Dr. George Everly for the content he has produced as well for the professionalism and experience shown.

By VLADIMER J N

Aug 12, 2020

The course is brief yet very substantial. I am profoundly satisfied with how the videos and vignettes provide concrete examples of the topics being discussed (including the correct and flawed presentations). I am also very delighted with how the whole PFA is acted out. It is very engaging and relatable. Thank you for offering this course. I wish you offer more courses related to this (perhaps building resilience in times of crisis) so more people in the community can provide effective crisis intervention response.

By Daniel J R F

Nov 4, 2017

This was an excellent course. As a victim of acute psychological terror myself, I find this course very comforting. It's nice to know there are trained professionals out there who know how to handle intensely stressful situations for others. Without the help of other experienced individuals during my time of need, I never would have recovered to the capacity I have, or not nearly as fast without their help. Now, I can use my experience and training to help others as well. These informative courses can save lives.

By Єлизавета Р

Feb 12, 2022

I am delighted with the knowledge and skills I gained in this course! The information was useful to me not only as a student of medical psychology, but also as a person who loves to help people. Now I know what to do in case of disasters, how to communicate with survivors, listen to them and help them. However, I would like more practical skills, and for this I will train more. I will go back to the material in this course, re-read and revise it all over again. Thank you very much for such an incredible course!

By Bruce R L P L

Oct 27, 2020

This course was very helpful and fun to study. The instructor really emphasized the important parts of the lesson and made timely repetitions in order for us to learn better. There were also examples of the things not to say and do which is very helpful to understand the lesson. Personally this is a great course to take even if you're not in the field of being a first responder because it at least teaches you how to help a friend in need even if he or she did not witness a disaster. I really love this course.

By Kirill P

Mar 29, 2017

Well-thought, qualitatively designed and, in the mean time, brief course. Very simple structure (definitely a good thing!) and simulation videos make Psychological First Aid very interesting subject to learn. All actions are analyzed and explained in detail. Would recommend it not only to psychologists, physicians or other doctors, but also to those who are interested in psychology itself and have no academic background in this area. You may discover some new stuff that will be both curious and useful for you

By Kris W

Apr 21, 2020

I found Dr. Everlys' course to be invaluable, both professionally and personally. His method of teaching was engaging and thoughtful. His personal experience came through loudly and clearly and enhanced the learning opportunities throughout the course. I would enthusiastically recommend my friends and colleagues take this course and would enthusiastically enroll in other courses taught by Dr. Everly. I learned about this course from a colleague who completed it ~ so I shall pay it forward as well! Thank

By Bee B

Jul 14, 2020

I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I learned as a complete novice in a short span of time. As an introductory course to psychological first aid, the course exceeded my learning expectations. I found the videos to be engaging and the the assessment was wasn't tedious. I will definitely find ways to further my understanding of the area. Considering that I have signed up for many courses and this is the first one I've ever completed definitely helps me believe that this course was very rewarding! Thank you!

By Karon N

Jun 14, 2020

Dr Everly structured the material in a way that made it easy for me to see both the bigger picture plus the nuts and bolts. He gave good and clear explanations, interesting positive and negative vignettes and practical learning handles. It's helpful for learning to be able to download the lecture slides and even the transcripts. The Everly guide to burnout at the end simply cracked me up. Kudos and thank you! My hats off to Dr Everly as well for having done this work for not 10, not 20, but 40 years. Woah.

By Ravi K P

Jun 1, 2020

This course helped me understand the basics and essentials in reaching out to people in need. The pandemic situation we are experiencing now threw all of us out of our comfort zones and the current scenario demands that we prepare ourselves to be of help, which is less materialistic and more psychological. This course I am sure helped me understand to identify people who need us the most and the way to handle and help them emotionally. I thank our instructor George Everly and everyone who made it possible.

By Gulnasa A

May 4, 2020

Thank you for the course. I enjoyed it's structure, content and Dr. Everly's manner of reporting. This course helped me gain skills and tools necessary to provide PFA, if needed. Also it motivated me to continue my education in Psychology as my Master. Once again I thank John Hopkins University and Coursera platform for provided opportunity to learn something new and acquire tools that can help me help others during challenging times, including the times we all are going through at the moment (COVID-19).

By SATISH K K

Jan 31, 2022

Indeed it is great course, Dr George has made it very clear that it is an introductory course, despite that being a psychologist and trauma hypnotherapist, I found it as an excellent course and recommend for all . We , in our live , find sometimes in such a scenarios and them coping for us and helping other at the moment till the help comes is very crucial. I thank Johns Hopkins Uni and Professor George for this wonderful course and Hats Off for Coursera to make it available for all... Thank you Coursera

By Jew A

Jul 20, 2020

Dr. Everly is an engaging presenter with clear enunciation, sense of humor, and soothing voice. The program is well structured and easy to understand even for someone who is only doing this for personal learning and is not from one of the specified target audience. The topic of “assessment and prioritization” was a bit vague and I noted that the answers of participants in the forum indicated that a lot of people, including myself were still confused...so these modules perhaps needed further clarification.

By Ümmügülsüm K

Jan 25, 2024

Thanks for your course. As a nurse it is really essential to use psychological first aid. Thanks to your course I feel the competence because I know it's details and what should I do and what should not I do. Thanks again for your energy and motivation to teach such an important approach. And thanks again for sharing your precious experience and knowledge looking so proffesional. I am really appreciated both certificate and high quality lessons. I hope I will be a good psychological first aider like you.

By Lesley D

Jul 1, 2020

I found the information provided by this course to be exactly what I needed and it was presented well. There were also plenty of references provided for going deeper if necessary. I didn't like the disjointed nature of the quizzes, you're asked questions about the information that appears later in the course. Maybe the idea is to encourage you to go back and retake the quizzes but I found it frustrating. I would recommend the course to anyone who may need to understand more about psychological first aid.

By clkagmi@gmail.com

Dec 7, 2019

While some of the techniques discussed were commonsense, it was extremely beneficial to see which techniques were supported by clinical evidence as being most effective for helping people to have the best outcomes in crisis situations. It was also useful to see breakdown and analysis of unhelpful responses, which lifted "saying the right thing" from the intuitive realm of "you have it or you don't" into the analytical realm of "this is what you should say, and this is WHY you shouldn't say X, Y, or Z."

By brenda g p m

Oct 28, 2020

Hace 5 años fui parte de un derrumbe de grandes características en mi país, donde se perdieron vidas humanas y materiales yo no sabia como actuar, como pensar, que hacer, lo único que quedaba era agradecer que estábamos vivos, sin embargo gracias a este curso ya se como mitigar la angustia aguda, evaluar, estabilizar con apoyo social a personas que lo necesiten, también estoy consciente que me falta mucho por aprender, pero ya di el primer paso y seguiré educándome en este tema que me fascina.Gracias.

By JM D

Jun 16, 2020

The course content was really relevant and highly informative. I also love the video simulations where we can see how PFA should not and should be done. While I've already been doing PFA, I still feel like I learned a lot of new things from this course. Dr. George Everly's slides on the Burnout Club was hilarious but true!

Thanks much to for that important reminder: that what we do makes a difference. It really is hard to remember this at times with all that's happening around the world. So, thank you.

By Laura H

Feb 26, 2020

I enjoyed the class format; the videos, quizzes and appreciate the further list of readings at the end of the course. I feel like I will make a difference, no mater how insignificant it may seem at first, in the lives of someone who has experienced a traumatic event. I am also grateful for others who have take this course or similar training in the effort to provide others with comfort and support. Someday, hopefully not, I may need the same and it is nice to know this support is available. Thank you!

By Robert A S

Jan 11, 2023

Definitely helped me personally and professionally. Dr. George Everly and the program itself is a very specific model on how we can provide PFA to those who are in need. It does not only acknowledge Psychological needs, but also physical, spiritual, and financial needs. Does a great job of showing good and bad examples of how to implement each part of the RAPID model at the end of each and every module. Thank you, Dr. George Everly and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for this course!

By Jose J O

Mar 16, 2020

This a very helpfull tool to everyone capable of aplying its principles. I think that this kind of knowledge should be as mandatory as knowing first aids ABC. It will be useful if one of the sess.ions where focused on teaching relaxation techniques, because althought there are so many and thy have permeated culture, many times there are done badly so people desestimate them. I am sure Dr Everly can instruct some of the more useful techniques he has used during his extensive experience. Thank you.

By Minnie T C

Jun 8, 2021

I enjoyed this short introductory course to Psychological First Aid. I did not really start with any expectations about what I would learn, but the course lives up well to its stated goals in explaining the basic ideas and approaches involved. Of course, you could always learn more if you wanted to take this into a professional environment or real world situation, but I think it serves well as a foundation and everything is explained clearly in a way that is easy to understand by the instructor.

By Dilisha F D J S

May 15, 2020

Greetings from Sri Lanka. This course on PFA has been an amazing journey. As an education therapist/ a special needs teacher I deal with many parents who have to face the situation of having their children diagnosed with a disorder. This is a crisis for them, struggling to come to terms with and find help. And through this course I have learned so much on what needs to be done to help stabilize and mitigate acute distress at a crisis situation. Thank you Dr. George for your valuable lectures!

By Luz C S d A

Aug 6, 2020

The course was brief but extremely useful; as a psychology undergraduate, it was a very insightful and enriching experience into the world of PFA; although the course wasn't designed for mental health clinicians and practitioners, knowing how to mitigate and stabilize people in acute distress that went through a harrowing event and be able to make them feel understood and supported, is a lesson in empathy that everyone should learn. Also, Dr. George Everly has an incredibly soothing voice.