Emdr Italy at the forefront of the Emilia-Romagna flood emergency

2023-06-09 10:20:41

Rivers and watercourses flooded, 290 landslides, over 500 interrupted, 36,000 people evacuated and 100 schools and public infrastructure affected by the effects of the flood in Emilia-Romagna. For this reason the Emdr Italy Association, with over 20 years of experience in emergency contexts, has taken the field alongside people and communities affected by bad weather. In just 3 days – reads a note – from 17 to 20 May, the Emdr Italia Association, activated by the Emilia-Romagna Region, managed to build an operational network capable of providing ongoing support and support in synergy with the local health authorities .

At the moment more than 120 volunteer therapists are intervening on various fronts, making themselves available – free of charge – to implement various types of support with psycho-education and psychological support activities for the stabilization of the most acute situations of stress, of the anxiety-related symptoms fear and trauma processing. At the moment the network is made up of on-site therapists, who physically cover all the provinces affected by the emergency, and others who work online to provide remote support and to coordinate the various requests.

In particular, the aid – the note details – is aimed above all at the population and at the figures of the therapists, support groups are organized every day for the therapists of the Association directly and indirectly affected by the catastrophe and who in turn are actively intervening to support their patients and citizens themselves. On these occasions, taking care of the psychotherapist’s psychological well-being is the first step in putting him in a position to be able to effectively help others.

The Emdr psychological emergency machine has multiple reference targets: the institutions that have to make decisions, the people who are working as rescuers and volunteers, and ordinary citizens. The greatest requests at the moment – concludes the note – come from teachers who ask for support to help children shaken by fear and also to assist the elderly population left isolated.

Not only that: the network of psychotherapists is entering companies and public administrations and support activities for small groups will also be organized in the coming days. Therapeutic interviews are fundamental for the management of the most critical cases, such as traumas linked to the loss of a loved one or the abandonment of one’s home, in giving assistance to displaced persons, but also to support those who are not forced to leave their homes , needs psychological help to manage the emotional impact of this collective disaster.

“In this emergency – he says Isabel Fernandez President of the Emdr Italy Association – we have to consider that most of our colleagues are also experiencing dramatic situations both on the personal front and on the working front and at the same time are continuing to support citizens anyway” he says. On behalf of the Association, I would like to thank all the therapists who immediately made themselves available to give their professional contribution to people in serious difficulty. The loss of a home can immediately lead to the onset of post-traumatic stress disorder, characterized by the continuous re-experience of the trauma, as if our mind had remained there, frozen, forced to relive the event. This is often the cause of pathologies such as insomnia, constant anxiety and fear”. To meet the needs of the population, a toll-free number 800024662 is active, which anyone can call or ask for help and psychological assistance.