Impartiality

All human beings are equally susceptible to suffering anxiety, fear, and trauma from disaster-related stress. No one should be deprived of the psychological and emotional support they need, and everyone should have access to resilience-building tools.  At Disastershock, we believe in universal care and access to mental health support for those who have experienced a natural or man-made disaster. We offer free psychological first aid to people who need it, giving priority to those in the most serious and immediate danger. This means that we do not discriminate according to nationality, race, gender, identity, ability, religious beliefs, class, political opinion or any other affiliation. 

 

Advocacy for Vulnerable Persons

During disasters children, the elderly, members of historically marginalized communities, persons with disabilities, and persons with health challenges suffer especially. The members of the DGRT have a special interest in providing psychological first aid to vulnerable persons during disasters.  

 

Neutrality

Neutrality means the Disastershock Global Response Team (DGRT) does not take sides in disasters caused by political conflict or war but remains politically neutral. In conflict situations, we provide psychological first aid where people’s needs are greatest and strive to provide compassionate care according to people’s level of need, not which ‘side’ they are on. We care for the safety and wellbeing of all individuals and communities as we believe in the interconnection of all people in the world.

 

Independence

The Disastershock Global Response Team is an all-volunteer team with no paid staff.  This financial independence enables us to respond quickly and based on need alone. We will not take funding that requires us to make decisions based on anyone else’s political, military or financial considerations, or on anything other than our own assessment of people’s humanitarian needs.

 

Global Perspective

Our members come from many different countries around the world. Our mission is to provide psychological first aid anywhere in the world where a disaster occurs. 

 

Focus on Children, Families and Schools

We are a Special Interest Group of the Oxford Symposium in School-Based Family Counseling, an international association of practitioners and scholars committed to the use of mental health interventions that link school and family resources to help children succeed academically and personally. Because children are particularly vulnerable during disasters, we emphasize ways of strengthening families and schools -  the two most important social institutions in which children live.

 

Integrative Approach to Mental Health Care

We provide an integrative, comprehensive approach to emotional health care based on the principle that one size does not fit all. This includes a variety of resilience-based approaches such as: arts-integrated psycho-educational, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic, and somatic-based neurobiological modalities. Having a deep understanding of trauma-informed care, we appreciate that healing and transformation are a journey of integrating the mind-body, spirit and imagination. We care about offering acute support and also offering resources for the long-term complex recovery in the aftermath of a disaster-related event.

 

* Our values are partly derived from those of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, an organization we greatly admire for its stand on Impartiality, Neutrality, and Independence.