Health ministry expands disaster mental health drills to Daejeon and Sejong

The National Gongju Hospital's Chungcheong regional trauma center held a joint workshop on Oct. 1 to strengthen the disaster mental health response skills of workers in Daejeon and Sejong.

The workshop, held at the hospital's Mind Health Center together with the Daejeon and Sejong metropolitan mental health welfare centers, moved beyond manual- and lecture-based training and introduced a live simulation exercise. Participants moved through spaces built to resemble a bereaved family's funeral hall, a shelter for displaced residents and a hospital treating the injured, carrying out psychological support suited to the people they encountered at each site. Scenarios were built around disasters considered most likely in the Chungcheong region. After the drills, participants received feedback on their interventions at each location and discussed how to improve their approach.

"It was helpful to feel the sense of being at an actual site," one participant said, adding that the session went beyond existing psychological first aid training to cover intervention methods that can be used in real situations.

The workshop followed the center's introduction in July of the region's first field-style psychological support training for mental health workers in North Chungcheong Province, and extended the program to Daejeon and Sejong. The center said it plans to run simulation drills throughout the year to raise the expertise of disaster response personnel across the region.

"On a disaster site, practical skills to quickly grasp the situation and the characteristics of those affected and to provide appropriate psychological support are important," said Choi Jong-hyuk, director of the National Gongju Hospital. "We will continue to work closely with related organizations to strengthen a field-centered disaster mental health response system, raise the expertise of disaster response workers and provide psychological support that is of real help to the public."