Abstract The remarks focused on the nature of psychosocial support and how programs need to adhere to the imperative of “do no harm”. International standards for psychosocial support have been developed with suggested interventions. The paper concludes that good psychosocial support programs will result in better physical, psychological, and social well being of the Indian child. Introduction The 2004 South Asia Tsunami has initiated a dialogue around two questions: What constitutes a catastrophic event for a child? and How can we alleviate the effects of those events? The table below sets up the stage for the discussion that follows below. Children’s worlds are very different from that of the adults that surround them, and they respond acutely to events that de-stabilize their perception of “their” world. This paper attempts to contribute to the dialogue by presenting a brief discussion on standards and guidelines which address the psychosocial support response from shock to recovery Table 1 Psychosocial Challenges for children Individual School Community • Death of family or pets • Injury to self while playing • Loss of study or play material • Illness or disability • Academic problems • Family problems • Bullying in schools • Economic constraints at home • Fires • Heavy rains • Lack of infrastructure • Poor sanitation • Epidemics • Bad food or water • No boundary wall • Lack of teaching resources • Earthquake • Floods • Landslides • Bomb blasts • Riots • Epidemics • Technological accidents • Drought • Fires Psychosocial Support as a strategy Psychosocial support activities and programs addresses the reactions to enormous losses, which often times are ignored in the immediate aftermath, or forgotten during the reconstruction phase, of a disaster. The factors that lead to increased distress after an extreme event are loss of a family member, community support structures, employment, and valued material possessions. Community based psychosocial support is an intervention that assist disaster-affected communities in their collective recovery after experiencing various traumatic life events as a result of a disaster. The American Red Cross community-based psychosocial support model considers a community to be the social and psychological foundation for the individual and the foundation for safety, belonging, livelihood, and education. Psychosocial support builds on the knowledge and awareness of the local needs and protective factors to provide psychological and social support to people involved in disaster situations. To meet the needs of people during traumatic life events it is essential to enhance the capacity of all members of the community to strengthen existing networks or to create new ones as needed. ARC psychosocial support projects are community-based (focused towards the individual, household or community) and identified, planned, and developed by the affected population with support and guidance from the local Red Cross. Psychosocial support programs involve community members in identifying needs, identifying interventions, and implementing those interventions. Members of the community are better placed to act as change agents (eg. building the capacity of teachers, traditional healers, social workers, and others in the community to understand the emotional needs of children and community members). Psychosocial support recognizes the importance of the social context in addressing the psychological impact of stressful events experienced in emergencies. In practice, this means facilitating the reconstruction of local social structures (families, schools) which may have been destroyed or weakened by the disaster, so that they can give appropriate and effective support to those suffering severe stress related to their experience. Psychosocial Needs of children post-disaster in India Children in India have contextualized needs that have emerged in the after action reports of the major disaster over the last ten years. , , The models that are req1ueired are those that would include care for the physical and psychological needs of children and adolescents. Empowering the mothers by teaching the basics of psychological first aid fort children is a basic intervention that has proved to bee very helpful. Fostering immediacy between mother and child is also a helpful tool. Mothers often have to attend to activities that will satisfy the basic needs of the family (ie. Activities such as “food for work”, registering with local authorities, attending meeting). Children remain by themselves or are cared for older siblings or elderly members of the family. During this period of time when the child is insecure about his/her response to this disaster, and the needs are greater for support and explanation of feelings mothers are the most important figures for children. Table 2 Objectives of Psychosocial Support Program for Children • Assist children to share their feelings and understand that feelings change over time. • Assist children to accept their own and others’ changing feelings. • Assist children to understand that people have recovered from tragic events throughout history. Identifying child-friendly environments that would serve as a space for children to safely participate in play activities, informal schooling and receive nutritional snacks is one way that the community may address the specific needs of children. Use of tents of adequate infrastructures within the community for these activities is highly recommended. Standards and Guidelines that suggest the structure of a psychosocial program The evolution of Psychosocial Support Programs (PSP) has corresponded with the increasing severity of disasters and the emergence of international guidelines. The 2004 Asian tsunami precipitated a discussion among international NGOs about the development and adoption of standardized mental health and psychosocial support following disasters. Since then, psychosocial support in emergency response guidelines finds place in standard tools and guidance documents; in addition, the SPHERE Project , the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergency (INEE) , and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS/IASC) (2007) provide further guidance. The SPHERE Project defines ‘social intervention’ as that which aims primarily at social effects. ‘Psychological intervention’ means intervention that aims at psychological (or psychiatric) effect. It acknowledges that social interventions have secondary psychological effects and that psychological interventions have secondary social effects, as the term ‘psychosocial’ suggests (p. 291). INEE defines psychosocial support as a methodology that fosters the reconstruction of local structures (family, community groups, and schools) which have been destroyed or weakened by a disaster, so that they can provide appropriate and effective support to those suffering severe stress resulting from ‘loss of place’ (Nicolai, 2003). The most recent guidance for Mental Health and Psycho-Social Support (MHPSS) developed by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (2007) enables humanitarian actors and communities to plan, establish, and coordinate a set of minimum responses to protect and improve people’s mental health and psychosocial well-being in an emergency. These guidelines bridge the traditional divide between mental health and psychosocial support programs during disaster recovery and reconstruction phases and emphasize the social context in which the programs require to be deployed; the goal being to reestablish ‘sense of place’ through active community participation. Developing a psychosocial program The table below presents the four basic components of a psychosocial program. The psychosocial support program must exhibit three basic components: (1) cross cutting themes that are important in setting up a program (planning, coordination, monitoring and evaluation) are addressed. (2) The community based psychosocial program is predicated on four core functions (heath, community mobilization, education and information production and dissemination), and (3) social considerations are adhered too. Table 3 How do we know we have a psychosocial support program • There is documented planning, coordination and monitoring of all interventions. • Interventions parallel international guidelines. • Program predicated on core functions (health, education, and community mobilization and support). • Social considerations (cultural, linguistic, and contextual) are adhered too. Psychosocial support activities in communities and schools must parallel international standards and guidelines as discussed above. Protection of children and developing the capacity of significant adults in the community are components of the program. These components of psychosocial programs are presented by Dayal on her paper in this volume. Summary Psychosocial support is recognized as an important component of recovery and reconstruction efforts in communities affected by disasters. Addressing the needs of children during these periods of uncertainty has become a major focus of the programs. This paper has attempted to describe the parameters of a psychosocial support program focused on children. It concludes with suggesting that any psychosocial program should strive to achieve a state of well-being on the participating children. A state of well being in which the children realize their own abilities, can cope with normal stresses of life, can perform school work productively and fruitfully, and are able to make contributions to the other classmates, the school, and their families.