Jewish leaders attend two-day 'psychological resilience' conference

Representatives of community groups seek to prepare British Jews for a major incident or crisis with professional help

Representatives of Jewish organisations have attended a two-day “psychological resilience” conference to prepare British Jews for a major incident or crisis.

The two-day conferences, run by the Community Security Trust (CST) in the wake of the Pittsburgh synagogue attack, were held in Manchester and London earlier this month “to improve the overall resilience of the Jewish community”.

Training was given by clinical psychologist Yotam Dagan, a specialist in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) who has worked as a hostage negotiator, and psychologist Dr Nikki Scheiner, who co-founded the CST’s Psychological Response Team.

Attendees were representatives of Jewish welfare, religious, cultural, youth and charitable groups, who were given “the tools with which to prepare themselves in the event of a major incident or crisis”.

Participants learnt about stress and coping, what constitutes normal reactions to a crisis or tragic event, resilience, and effective crisis management, using lectures and role-play. A short session also dealt with skills in communicating with those affected.

A series of follow-on webinars will now be given to support organisations, while any group interested in training staff in psychological resilience, psychological first aid or crisis management is asked to contact the CST.