Republic of Korea - The emotional impact caused by emergencies is often overlooked, despite the fact that psychosocial wounds are often more enduring than the physical injuries, a workshop in the Republic of Korea (ROK) heard this week.

Acknowledging the importance of addressing psychosocial consequences of disasters and providing psychosocial support to affected population, IOM Seoul hosted an international workshop on 19-20 January on psychosocial support and staff care in emergencies.

The two-day workshop, funded by the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), invited renowned psychosocial support experts from Korea and abroad to share policies, cases, lessons and standards of psychosocial support in emergencies, along with ways to improve response.

IOM psychosocial support experts Guglielmo Schinina and Mazen Aboulhosn, together with practitioners Leslie Snider, Jack Saul, and John Ehrenreich, took part in the workshop, which addressed the provision of rapid psychosocial support in the onset of an emergency, Psychological First Aid, therapeutic interventions for beneficiaries and staff care.

The workshop attracted more than 300 participants, many of whom are psychosocial support professionals in Korea, demonstrating increased demands for such support in emergencies, notably the Sewol Ferry Disaster in April 2014, which left permanent scars on Korean society.

“The workshop is in line with IOM’s global effort to help disaster-affected populations cope better with severe psychosocial consequences, to rebuild their own lives, and to support society to enhance resilience,” said Miah Park, Head of Office at IOM Seoul.

“We hope that through this workshop, participants can develop a deeper appreciation of the psychosocial factors affecting those in humanitarian emergencies and further develop our capacity to appropriately respond,” she added.

IOM has provided critical psychosocial support in emergencies in high-risk countries including Syria, Iraq, South Sudan and Yemen since 1999.

For further information, please contact IOM Seoul. Eunjin Jeong, Tel: +82 070 4820 2324, Email: ejeong@iom.int or Hwahyun Kim, Tel: +82 70 4820 2784, Email: hwakim@iom.int