International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc.
International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc.
By: Clare Yeo
On 23 January 2020, Singapore saw our first positive case of COVID-19 which was an imported case. It was two days before the Chinese New Year (CNY) and a travel advisory from our Ministry of Health was circulated to avoid travel to Hubei, China. I recalled being very busy making preparations for CNY with my mother, from the thorough spring-cleaning in anticipation of our family and friends coming over for our annual CNY gatherings to preparing and ordering a variety of festive goodies. A week later, the situation started to change as ground sensing revealed that more of us were starting to be aware of the prospect that the virus could be more deadly than expected.
Another significant date for Singapore was 7 February 2020 when our disease outbreak level was raised, signifying that the virus is severe and could spread easily from person to person. While the virus was not spreading widely in Singapore and was being contained, this move triggered panic behavior amongst the public, much the same as in the rest of the world when the virus took hold. While trying hard to maintain some normalcy in my routines, I tried to get hold of information on the virus from various sources, some of which were incorrect and only instilled greater fear in me. This made me realise the importance of getting accurate information from credible sources. I also recall feeling helpless as some of my colleagues volunteered to go to the frontline in our fight against the virus. Our experiences managing critical incidents in the past including disease outbreaks has taught us the importance of supporting our people, from providing timely information of the virus to the necessary actions to be taken to protect ourselves – be it at an individual, group or societal level. Our efforts to increase our capacity and capability in crisis management through the provision of training to various interested agencies have also paid dividends as these agencies were able to immediately activate their plans, and provide much-needed emotional support to those under their charge.
The call-to-action to provide emotional support to the community came late March as we realized that we were just at the start of this disease outbreak, which was not only affecting us physically but psychologically as well. A team of us from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Social and Family Development, as well as the Institute of Mental Health, met to set up the National CARE (Caring Action in Response to Emergencies) Hotline (NCH). With just eight days, we had to set up the hotline from scratch as well as recruit and train volunteer mental health professionals to man the hotline. Having all been trained by the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc. (ICISF), our shared common language was a great help while working under time pressure.
Our first challenge was to determine our mode of operations as in past crisis activations, we were able to meet face-to-face with survivors and their next-of-kin. As even our meetings had to be conducted via Zoom, we quickly realized that we had to set up a hotline for members of the public to call in. Technology became a key driver of our operations where we tapped on various digital platforms to ensure prompt communication and information sharing amongst the volunteers. As most of us were more accustomed to face to face interactions, we had to adjust very quickly and made the best of the situation while ensuring that our channels of communication as well as our lines of command were kept open amongst the volunteers. I am glad that I had the opportunity to overcome my technology “phobia” amidst the pandemic.
Our next key focus was on the mental health professionals who readily stepped up from the public, community and private sectors when the call for volunteers was made. The need to use a common crisis management technique was clear and psychological first aid was chosen for the ease of implementation. While supervising the volunteers when they were on shift, their altruism to help the callers was very evident to me. That said, I found myself having to remind them that we were offering psychological first aid and not counselling or psychotherapy which the volunteers were well-versed in. With a number of callers being evidently distressed, as well as others who were verbally demanding, it became evident that emotional support was needed for our volunteers and one-on-ones were offered to them following critical incidents or stressful calls. Having a common goal to support callers who called up our then-24-hour hotline also saw much teamwork and camaraderie which kept morale up as we ourselves had to adjust to the various challenges in our personal lives. While I may not have met the volunteers in person, our common experience of being on the same eight-hour shift and supporting the callers remotely as a team will be cherished for a long time to come.
Next phase of our response
As we now have a better understanding of how to contain the pandemic, there is a need to define life in the new norm. To this end, efforts were made to spread positive stories via the various media platforms of our front liners who have worked tirelessly as well as ground-up initiatives to support one another in the community. Our next focus would be on the economic and financial impact of COVID-19 which is expected to take a few years to recover and will also have a psychological impact. The need to continue to build capacity and capability in emotional resilience is ever more pressing as “together, we can brave the new” (SG United, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, Singapore).
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International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc is a 501(c)3 Non Profit