Diploma in Psychosocial Care & Support in Disaster Management

Disasters are out-of-the-ordinary experiences, causing distress and emotional reactions in almost all affected, including the disaster workers. The emergency response priorities in a disaster situation are the provision of basic life support needs, ensuring the security of disaster survivors, and the provision of psychological and social support. These services would ensure normalising routines and helping survivors resume activities of daily living as quickly as possible so that it hastens rehabilitation and enhances coping with the distress that result from the disaster. To respond to this growing understanding of psychosocial care and support in disaster management, this programme seeks to prepare a team of professionals who are equipped to respond to psychosocial care and support needs at the micro and macro levels, as well as supervise, train and develop human capacity in disaster management. Above all there is a need for developing interventions/services that are culture specific, acceptable, and effective in the Indian context. The diploma programme has been conceived especially for professionals working in people-centered professions or those with first degrees in the helping professions and now desirous of concentrating on psychosocial care in disaster management.

Scope:
It is envisaged that students of this course might make choices that include working with national and international NGOs, becoming independent practitioners, opting for more specialised professional courses or research-oriented education programmes. This course not only responds to the existing human resource needs in the area of disaster mental health but also aspires to mould professionals who can contribute to resource and capacity building in the field of psychosocial care and support in disasters.

Course Structure:
The total of 38 credits is distributed across the 2 semesters as indicated in the table below:

- PSCS 1 Disaster Management: Concepts & Issues (2 credits)
- PSCS 2 Disasters, Risk and Vulnerability (2 credits)
- PSCS 3 Psychosocial Care: Concept and Skills (4 credits)
- PSCS 4 Psychosocial Care of Special Groups (4 credits)
- PSCS 5 Project Administration and Management in Disasters (2 credits)
- PSCS 6 Disaster Mental Health Research (2 credits)
- PSCS 7 Networking, Collaboration, Advocacy and Disasters (2 credits)
- PSCS 8 Staffing, Standards, Ethics and Policy for Psychosocial Care in Disaster Situations (4 credits)
- PSCS 9 Field Work/ Internship (12 credits)
- PSCS 10 Monograph / Skill Workshops (4 credits)

Total 38 Credits