Welcome back. Today we will talk on the protective and risk factors in daily emergencies in adults. We can define a daily crisis or emergency as a situation in which the person feels subjectively overflown by the things that are happening. Its personal resources are ineffective and inadequate to overcome the situation he's living. They are sudden changes such as an eviction, a job loss or a home fire. We can also define a daily crisis or emergency as an even more traumatic event in which the person might live with danger for its own physical integrity or even its life or another person's. Some examples might be a fight, a sexual assault or a car crash. As it is a new concept, we have put some examples so that you can have a clearer idea. For these daily emergency situations that are a reference to sudden changes such as floods, job changes, being fired, a divorce or bankruptcy. Those that are more extreme, such as an armed robbery, a car crash, a stabbing, a sexual assault, having been aimed with a gun, etc. Remember that daily emergencies have very negative consequences, but they don't risk society's infrastructures nor society services. Let's now see which are the daily crisis' characteristics. Daily crisis are frequent, that's why they have this name, daily, sudden, they appear suddenly, they are unexpected, we can't foreseek them, they are urgent, they threaten the person's emotional and physical comfort and affect a family or the closest members of the family core. Depending on how the daily emergency is solved we can find two processes, one is the effective resolution that will mean generating new resources and potentiating the already existent ones in the person and starting the mourning process if there has been a loss. The second process would be the opposite, facing the situation that will drive the person to develop some kind of disorder, either destructive behaviors such as alcoholism or drugs consumption, either depression or a posttraumatic stress disorder. We can find the risk and protective factors that converge in daily emergencies in three levels: protective and risk factors in the environment, situational protective and risk factors, and the protective and risk factors of the person. Let's see them with more details now. Environment factors refer to the physical conditions or circumstances given in the place in which the emergency happens. And are, so, external to the person and can influence them in the experience perception. They are elements given in the place where the emergency happens that condition the event's living. So all these elements can either be risk or protective factors. These components in the environment such as the orography, the population density, the climatology and if it's daytime or night. Orography refers to if it's a very accessible terrain or not, a cliff or a road. With population density we refer to the amount of people that can be gathered in that certain place, whether it's a very crowded place or not. About daytime or night, we refer to the fact that during daytime there's more light, more brightness, more visibility, and if it's night it's the opposite, there's less light, more darkness. And finally by climatology we mean if in that certain moment it is raining or it's very cold or very hot. All these factors influence in the subjective perception of insecurity or tranquility, concerning the situation's confrontation. Here you can see these factors a bit more organized, as positive factors we have the fact that the place is easily accessible for emergency services and professionals, having a good visibility, not having too many brushes or trees that hinder an easy access. Daylight, a lot of light helps the accessibility and the work of the professionals that are working and if it's a crowded place we will be able to ask for help and it will come soon. On the other side, negative factors stop or hinder these access and aid possibilities, increasing the subjective danger feeling. Situational factors refer to the circumstances given in a certain moment, so they are external to the person and condition the achievement of a good result. Situational factors make the person have a positive or negative crisis experience. Situational protective factors are an empathic attitude from the professional participants, it makes us feel more comfortable and we feel we are being properly assisted, For us, professional participants means those usual resources that are mobilized in front of a daily emergency, such as the police and the ambulance men. If it's required firemen and emergency doctors will also be mobilized. Having alternatives and being able to take decisions on what we think or want to do brings us safety and the feeling of having certain control on the situation. Asking for help and getting it almost immediately gives us tranquility and serenity. Having quality information repeatedly, being told what happened, who is working on it, what is happening right now, and what will happen next. It gives us tranquility, confidence and makes uncertainty decrease. Solidarity and accompaniment from the community in which the incident happened, helps having a social support network and eases the access to the community resources, promoting the return to the life previous to the emergency as soon as possible. Having the chance of family reunification allows talking to someone trustworthy, easing the understanding of what happened and integrating it. Low activation levels makes reference to the fact that when someone is calmed and thinks that everything will be OK, the stress and anxiety diminish. It's important that the activation level isn't too low, because this would make us lose reflexes and wouldn't allow us managing the emergency's solution properly. Finally containment. In containment, the professionals that participate in the emergency must try to keep the person calm and tranquil, answering to all its questions in a soft and slow voice. They must assist his basic needs in case they can and in case he asks for it, leave him alone. Let's now see which are the risk factors that meet in an emergency: not being able to run away from the situation or not having any escape alternative. In example, we are trapped in a car and we see how a truck is about to mow us down or we have a broken leg and we can't escape from a fire. This increases our fear and endangered life perception. Having little help availability or delayed assistance; also mobile phones usually stop working when we need them the most, running off battery or having no signal. If we also are in a zone with hard access or little visibility asking for help will be harder. Distant professional attitudes, lack of empathy, coldness in their behavior, ignoring us while they are working, not assisting us, not answering to our questions, all this brings insecurity and increases uncertainty. Family disintegration, not having the chance to meet any relative doesn't allow us to express our feelings to someone trustworthy and tell them what happened. Being alone in these moments can take us to the isolation and give us difficulties to integrate what happened. Not having many information or being exposed to rumors, which means they don't inform us about what they are doing, what happened, what will happen, which processes or paperworks we must do, as well as being aware of information we can get from non-official channels, will difficult us the crisis resolution. All those activation levels cause exhaustion, stress and anxiety, diminish the concentration capacity and difficult management in problems solving. To optimize activation levels it would be recommendable to apply in situ relaxation through breathing. Seeing someone hurt or dead increases the feeling of danger for the life and the physical integrity. Social incomprehension of the community in which the person usually gets along, not understanding nor comprehending what happened to him, makes the person isolated, he won't ask for help or support, he will feel guilty and he won't go back to his routine. Personal factors refer to the personal features each person as someone affected at the moment of making decisions and acting in front of a daily crisis. We acquire personal factors unconsciously through everything we live, especially during adolescence, stage in which our personality is formed, and during youth. So they are essential determinants attached to the person such as their previous experience, having been in other similar emergencies or a profession in which you have to act regularly in daily emergencies. These factors help increasing or decreasing the ability of managing the situation effectively. Protective personal factors are having a good communication capacity, having the ability of making a good explanation on what happened, because it helps integrating what happened and overcoming the situation. Having a good capacity to communicate or reveal the emotions, which is having the capacity of expressing feelings properly, helping to emotional development. Facing difficult situations through the emotions, which means having the capacity to give a name to the feelings so that we can manage them properly. Facing difficult situations through emotions is having the capacity of giving a name to the feelings and, this way, managing them. Having a functional social support network allows us to feel like someone is listening to us and that we have a support in the hardest moments. This helps us progressively going back to our habitual life before the emergency, accepting the help from relatives and neighbors allows us to focus on the hardest aspects of the emergency. Being an optimistic and tenacious person who looks for alternatives and solutions to the problems allows us to face and pass over them earlier. Making leisure activities helps us having time to disconnect, the sense of humor allows us to play down things and face life positively. Let's now see which are the risk factors for the person. The age, an old age difficults being able to face the daily emergency with bigger success, as old people have a weaker health, and a sometimes important damage wear of their cognitive capacities. Having suffered other traumatic events previously, mostly if they had a negative result. Danger perception for the own life or the own physical integrity or someone else's makes the appreciation of fear and danger increase. Having any physical or mental health problem, having a physical health problem or a disability increases the danger feeling and the feeling of being unharmed diminishes. Having a mental health problem might impede or distortion reality and even making the affected one unstable, not having the chance of talking to someone trustworthy difficults being able to understand what happened and integrating it, having little social relationships or a very reduced social support network makes the person have social isolation and prevents him from asking for help. Finally uncertainty, uncertainty towards the future increases because we don't know what will happen and this increases fear. To finish today's class we will see some distinctive treats we can find in daily emergencies when there are kids affected or when there are only adults. When there are affected kids, families, and so adults, become more anxious, they usually take kids away with the objective of protective them. As we have seen this attitude is against the psychological first aid application. There is usually more available help and they require more protection towards media. On the other side when there are only adults affected, with the same activations level, anxiety is minor. Communication and management of bad news and general information is easier and the connection with the support social network and the community resources slows down.
