Center for Public Health Preparedness (CPHP)

Welcome to the UAlbany Center for Public Health Preparedness (CPHP) website. From 2002 to 2017, the CPHP was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop and deliver Emergency Preparedness Training to public health professionals, emergency responders and other allied health professionals. Among the array of educational materials the Center has produced to date, the satellite broadcasts and web-based training courses have helped to establish a national and even international reputation for its distance-based learning.

Psychological First Aid for Training Coordinators

Psychological First Aid (PFA) is an evidence-informed approach that provides staff and volunteers with practical ways to help people with their basic needs and immediate concerns during a disaster.  The University at Albany Center for Public Health Preparedness (UACPHP) collaborated with the Institute for Disaster Mental Health at SUNY New Paltz (IDMH), the NYS DOH, the NYS OMH and other partners to develop a Psychological First Aid Training Coordinator Guide and Training.  The training and guide is intended to help coordinators tailor learning and skills based PFA activities to local needs and resources. This training provides participants with the resources and knowledge needed to implement PFA training within an organization or facility.

Training Materials developed under this grant are made publicly available below. Please note that training materials are in draft form. Please send your comments and suggestions for improvement to [email protected].

A draft of the full guide and training are available for download below:

• PFA for Training Coordinators Guide (full pdf)
• PFA for Training Coordinators Training PPT

Individual Modules (downloadable):

• Introduction
  • What is PFA and Why is it Important?
  • Getting to Outcomes® approach to program planning (RAND)
  • Model PFA Training Plan
  • Building Capacity for PFA Training (identifying local behavioral resources to support PFA training activities)
• PFA on-line review
  • Detailed review of 14 online PFA courses and 2 apps
• Facilitator Guide and Practice Based Scenarios
  • Instructions on how to implement interactive PFA practice based sessions to facilitate skill acquisition
  • 10 practice based scenarios
  • PFA Model Practice Videos - Each video models how to use PFA in a practice session.  The overall scenario is a virulent strain of influenza.
    • Point of Dispensing
    • Staff Break Room
    • Hospital Waiting Room
• PFA policies and practices
  • Model PFA Training policy
  • Examples of policies and practices
• Evaluation and Quality Improvement
  • Evaluation of PFA skill acquisition
  • PFA training program evaluation and quality improvement tools
• Additional PFA Resources
  • Just in Time Training
  • PFA Manuals
  • PFA Videos
  • Population specific PFA resources
• PFA Overview PPT
  • The slide set is intended as a brief overview of PFA that can be used prior to implementing the PFA practice sessions. The slide set includes speaker notes and an audio recording.
• PFA Technical Assistance Training Materials
  • A recorded audio webcast of the PFA Technical Assistance Training and PowerPoints are archived on YouTube

These projects are supported under a cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Grant number 5U90TP000404-05. The contents of this program do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC.

For more information, please email [email protected].