'Building Resilience in Care Providers' Daniel Siegel | HagueTalks

HOW CAN HUMANITARIAN AID WORKERS BUILD RESILIENCE IN HIGH-STRESS ENVIRONMENTS?
As a global society, we rely upon 570,000 humanitarian aid workers to bring security, comfort and basic services to more than 131 million people in need, including over 68 million refugees displaced by conflict and insecurity. Relief workers operating on the front lines of humanitarian response are routinely exposed to stress and chaos, and as a result, the sector continues to shoulder a largely overlooked mental health crisis.

Working in countries affected by war and natural disasters is inherently stressful, yet aid workers also face a layer of psychological vulnerability which is exacerbated by the lack of adequate training, support and management for such issues. The failure to adequately prepare and support staff has enormous negative consequences at three levels:

Individual humanitarian aid workers suffer increased trauma and stress levels, perform under their potential, get burned out and leave the field earlier.
Humanitarian organisations operate less efficiently, with higher costs for insurance and medical care, and high staff turnover causing loss of institutional knowledge and inflated recruitment costs.
Populations in need receive a lower quality of care from agencies with high staff turnover and aid workers who are over-stressed, less experienced and under-trained.
Through this event, we explore more around the need for support amongst humanitarian aid workers in relation to stress management. We ask: what are the main stressors experienced by aid workers, and how does stress impact them? What are the potential routes to resilience, both at the individual and organisational level? What duty of care do organisations have in relation to the wellbeing of their staff?

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Drawing on the experiences of local and international aid workers, Dr Dan Siegel provides an insight into the need for resilience in the caring professions. He explores how to move from a ‘No’ brain state to a ‘Yes’ brain state and how to promote wellbeing through greater awareness.

Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. He is a New York Times Bestselling author and has published extensive written work. As one of the world’s leading neuropsychiatrists, Dr Siegel focuses on exploring how human consciousness can evolve to meet the unprecedented challenges we face in today’s world. He is Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute, which teaches insight, empathy and integration in individuals, families and communities.

Twitter: @DrDanSiegel

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