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PEER SUPPORT FOR AID WORKERS

Small group post-entry debriefings are offered to aid workers who have returned from deployment abroad. The debriefings are designed for aid workers who have been out of the field and/or returned home for a period of 2-4 months. These group sessions have been established to support aid workers from small organizations or who have not been offered an adequate personal debriefing following deployment.

M2: Returned Aid Workers - Re-Entry Group Debriefing (2,3 & 4 months post assignment)
Recommended for volunteers or aid workers who do not have the opportunity of an individual psychological re-entry debriefing or who may prefer a small group debriefing experience with peers who are also recently returned from deployment

The coming home and re-entry experience of an aid worker may be a rich and welcome experience for some but it can also be a relatively unexpected distressing experience.

Transitions have to be made from not just the living and work conditions and sociocultural context of the field but also adjustment to the sudden changing sense of one’s every day purpose, usefulness and identity; to attachments as well as investment of occupational energy and to very contrasting materialistic values and priorities. This can be more challenging than anticipated, especially when dearly loved friends and families really cannot understand the complexity of the deployment experience and expect that once you are back, then you are back as if you never left.

Sometimes, it is not until one is out of the field that there is space and time to realize the level of fatigue, the emotional consequences, the acutely felt costs and rewards of the work and the intensity of relationships that have been left behind. Frequently, issues related to relationships can be difficult to move on from until there has been an airing and empathic comprehension of such issues. Next steps and choices are not always clear in the weeks following return and there can be a sense of grieving and abandonment guilt for the dwindling opportunities to keep alive the significance of the experiences of those that were assisted in the field and relationships that were left behind.

The psychosocial adjustment of aid workers, particularly re-entry adjustment, can be greatly enhanced by the sharing of experiences with those who really understand the nature of experiences in the field and the confronting experience of being home following a deployment.

This Group Debriefing meeting is an opportunity to share story and adjustment experiences with like-minded people and to assuage the risk of accumulative and unaddressed stress. Tips for managing adjustment will be shared.

It is preferred if the participants of this group debriefing meeting have been out of the field or post assignment for between 2-4 months.

Download Registration Form [ PDF Format ]

The Antares Foundation Inc. Australia would like to hear of any alternative proposed or existing peer support groups for humanitarian aid workers in the Australia Asia Pacific region.

We would be most happy to advertise the meeting schedule and contact details for your group on our website.

Contact: antares@antaresfoundation.org.au