Exposure to natural disasters has a devastating impact on the psychological and social well-being of children, adolescent and adults. It is now widely accepted that early psychosocial interventions that help to mitigate the effect of trauma, alleviating psychological distress, and strengthen resiliency must be an integral part of humanitarian assistance. In the case of children and adolescents, psychosocial interventions also aim to maintain or re-establish their normal development process.
The principles in this document, while developed in response to the 2005 tsunami, can and should be considered for any emergency setting to guide psychosocial programming. The publication was produced by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), Save the Children UK (SC UK), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and World Vision International (WVI).
