Speech Delivered by

Chaplain Dr. Joy David-Mike

On the Mini Graduation Ceremony of Psychological First Aid Training (GYMHA)

On Sat. 9^th Oct, AD 2021

Topic: The Relationship Between Spiritual Care and Psychological First Aid (PFA).

Welcome: I welcome you all severally and collectively to this epoch making event. It wonderful being here. I appreciate everyone and thank you for the wonderful opportunity granted me to speak to you all, it is an honour that will not be taken for granted.

I thank the leadership of this unique organization, I appreciate the visionary leader, Prof. Jude, God bless you sir and give you the sufficient grace to accomplish this laudable vision of yours.

I will also not forget to thank Vivian, whom I call Lady V, whose mode of attending in our first contact was so inviting and appealing, God bless you richly. Also permit me to thank in the house my personal person and colleague; my motivator and encourager, Chaplain Mathew Ngobua, the one I call the man with the master  key, he knows how to pull me out from my shell, God bless you richly.

My prayer for us all is that this organization and its vision will not dies in our hands but outlive us all with a lot of benefits to the young ones who are her targeted audience, you are all welcome. God bless you all.

Introduction: Human life is filled with up and down situation or journey with a lot of stressors that hinders one from experiencing a wholisitic health and well-being, thereby making it difficult for many to make meaning in life they live; this and many more makes it difficult or if not impossible for many to live fulfilled lives or experiencing fulfillment in life.

The resultant effect of human ills, pains and sufferings affect every aspect of human life – physical, emotional, mental, psychological, spiritual and social which make daily living difficult and a challenging one.

To keep one safe, sane, sound and healthy brought about the emergence of various forms of aids and care to help and support people to cope with their day-to-day living and whatever crisis they are confronted with.

These aids and care comes in various forms such as psychological first aid and care, emotional first aid and care, mental first aid and care, spiritual first aid and care, psychosocial aid and care, psychospiritual aid and care.

If one must live a wholistic life, all these aspects of life must be taken care of or attended to.

Journey with me in this presentation to learn more and take a place where you dim fit to be of assistance to people around you who are faced with one life challenges or the other. God bless you all.

Definition of Terms: Permit me as I define the key words in this presentation:

Relationship: This I will like to define in line with the topic of this presentation: relationship is a state of connectedness between people or things; The state of being related; The way in which two or more people or things are connected or associated.

Spiritual: Relating to or affecting human soul or spirit, usually in contrast to material or physical things; pertaining to the soul or its affections as influenced by the spirit.

Psychological: Affecting or arising from the mind; relating to the mental and emotional state of a person; mental or emotional as opposed to physical in nature; relating to the mind and mental processes.

Spiritual Care: Spiritual care is the support chaplains and Spiritual Care-givers as specialists offer people who are struggling with emotional, mental and spiritual crisis, their families and staff of various organizations, institution and industries in dealing with the stress of life, crisis, illness, trauma, questions of meaning, suffering, death and grief.

Spiritual care also is the attention given to the spirituality and spiritual health of another for the purpose of assisting the person in taking steps to move towards a balance and greater personal authenticity, integrity or inner congruence.

As this assistance is offered and received, the stress caused by the dissonance is moderated and diminished, as movement towards balance is made which result in enhanced spiritual health and well-being.

The part of human health tended to in spiritual care is known as “Spiritual Health,” when it includes mental, emotional and psychological aspect of human life it is known as “Psycho-spiritual Care” which I prefer to call it “Emo-Psycho-Spiritual Care.”

People seek meaning in order to live authentically with themselves and others. This can become a particular set of spiritual beliefs, guiding the ultimate purpose of our life. Spiritual care is not same as religious care, though related but different and unique.

Psychological First Aid: There are various definition of PFA but let’s take these two:

·        PFA is an evidence-informed approach that is built on the concept of human resilience, to reduce stress symptoms and assist the receiver in a healthy recovery following a traumatic event, natural disaster, public health emergency or even personal crisis.

·        PFA is an evidence-informed modular approach to help people of various ages (children, adolescents, youth, adults, elderly and their families in the immediate aftermath of disaster and terrorism, designed to reduce the initial distress caused by traumatic events and foster short-term adaptive functioning and coping.

From the definitions, I believe we have the understanding of the importance and interconnectedness of spiritual and psychological, which I will love to put the two terms in one word “Psychospiritual.” Call it psychospiritual First Aid or Psychospiritual Care, okay.

Believe you me, human beings are tripartite beings, with the makeup of the body, the soul and the spirit which are interwoven with each other. No one of this aspect of life is affected without the other having the feel of the pain that is what makes it is important that all of them need to be attended to.

Research Support: Research validates that the help and support people receive in times of crisis and life challenging situations matters. Providing effective psychological, emotional, mental and spiritual care to individuals, families and communities in difficult times is critical and help promote resilience, healing and recovery.

Spiritual and psychological First Aid (SPFA) seeks to provide psychological, emotional, mental and spiritual care for people who experienced or are experiencing traumas or any life crisis.

SPFA is a practical compassionate and supportive presence of one person to another or a professional to another which is designed to mitigate acute distress, assess needs, provide essential supportive care and link with other support systems as needed for ongoing psychological, spiritual, emotional and mental health care.

The relationship Between Spiritual Care and PFA: I plead with you to be patience with me as I would like to consider the differences between spiritual care and PFA first.   

Their Differences: No matter how connected, related and associated they seem to be, there are differences between them and each is unique in the goals it sets to achieve in human existence.

1.     PFA is a short-term care to people who experienced traumatic events to help relieve tension, stress and get them calm pending when professional care will be available while Spiritual Care is a long-term care that may span through care-recipients’ life time to enable them live a fulfilling and meaningful live despite their conditions.

2.     PFA offers a temporal relief to curb or avoid further crisis or damage while Spiritual Care is more comprehensive, targeted to the “whole person” for wholistic healing and recovery.

3.     PFA deals with immediate and present conditions of the recipients while Spiritual Care deals with the past, present and future for interconnectedness of the spirit, soul and body for a meaningful-fulfilled life.

4.     PFA focuses in the reduction of stress in the victims of traumatic events and to get them calm and safe before the needed support or solution of their problems are being attended to while Spiritual Care focuses on helping people to answer the “Big Life Questions” such as meaning, purpose, connection etc. brought to them by the traumatic events they experienced.

5.     PFA is like a palliative care to sooth the mind of traumatized individuals for a while to mitigate further crisis that may be detrimental to the persons’ health like self-medication, drug/chemical abuse while Spiritual Care takes the process of wound healing and recovery to enable them live a wholistic life with meaning and purpose.

Having done justice to the differences, follow me as we go on to spiritual care and PFA connectivity and association:

Spiritual care and PFA have one target which is human beings, wherever they may be, who are facing difficult and critical situations in life which will hinder them from enjoying their God-given lives and the opportunities to live, explore and make meaning of life.

The two terms seek to help people in traumatic or painful situations to navigate through their pains and ugly situations, bounce back and thrive, without making wrong decisions or taking wrong actions that will be detrimental to their well-being, families, and the society at large.

Spiritual care and PFA seek to safeguard individuals who experienced traumatic events or passing through critical life challenges and problems from resorting to hard drugs as a means of escaping their pain and challenges but give them the needed stamina and coping capacity to face their pain squarely until victory is sure.

These two terms have two categories of people or group that offer these care to achieve maximum benefits in people who are in need of each, they are called the volunteers or the professionals. In my profession, chaplaincy, we have them as the generalists and the specialists.

In conclusion, Just the way first aid is related to medical care in times of emergency, when the professional health care providers are not readily available, anyone who is skilled in providing the needed medical first aid can do so to save a life before the professionals come for proper medical care.

In the same vein, PFA and spiritual care can be offered by anyone who is skilled on each of them based on temporal ground before professionals or specialists in the field will take over to offer the needed care or solution to the recipients’ problems.

Final Word: I hope you have learnt something from this little knowledge of mine on this topic. My prayer for us all is that God will safeguard us from all ills, crisis, traumas or any experience that may alter our wholistic health, wellness and well-being.

Stay sane, safe, whole, sound, and healthy and remain eternally blessed.

God bless you one more time. Thank you

Chaplain Dr. Joy David-Mike SCC, CPC

DMin. Chaplaincy Education