Everyone at some point finds themselves in the company of someone in distress. Few of us really knows what to do. UNE Associate Professor John Malouff would like to help with that.
Dr Malouff, a qualified psychologist, is running a free short course on what he describes as “a sort of micro-skill: how to help someone in a state of distress, in the moment they are distressed”.
“There are a lot of distressed people in this world,” he observes.
“Everyone gets distressed at times, and some people are often distressed. It would be very helpful for the individuals involved, and society at large, if more of us knew how to intervene right then and there to help a distressed person.”
“It’s a good skill to have, and something that anyone can acquire with a little bit of training.”
For the course, starting on November 7 and running to November 18, Dr Malouff is drawing on techniques he used to teach Lifeline volunteers dealing with distressed people – some acutely distressed – who called the helpline.
“First we have to help people feel less distress, to deal with that raging emotion – anger, anxiety, sadness, whatever it is – so they can calm down enough to think clearly. Then we are in a position to focus on longer term improvement.”
The course will be delivered using publicly-available online tools. The main forum will be a closed Facebook group that deals solely with the training.
“We won’t be putting up pictures of our cats,” Dr Malouff remarks. “I’ll be posting information and suggestions about how to handle different situations. Different circumstances require different responses.”
“In every situation, there will be a good way to respond, and a not-so-good way. Saying things like, ‘At least you have one leg left’ usually turns out not to be helpful, for instance.”
The Facebook group will be complemented by an interactive Zoom session, in which students will apply the model they have learned. “That Zoom environment allows students to practice while no one else is watching outside that group. It will be an opportunity to observe and try to help each other learn.”
The training stage of the course will be held over a fortnight, with a week of followup for assessments and other course consolidation procedures. The Facebook group will then be closed.
The course is free, but Dr Malouff hopes to profit in non-pecuniary ways. He will evaluate how successful the course was in helping participants deal with real-life situations.
“Nothing is ever going to be perfect, especially when dealing with something as variable as human distress. But we’d like to understand whether the training increases the ability of participants to help distressed individuals.”
For further information: Go to https://unesurveys.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cu6LnBtgd6nc95Y or contact Dr Malouff at jmalouff@une.edu.au
