Geriatric Mental Health Disaster and Emergency Preparedness

Chapter 6 Supervision and Facilitated Refl ective Practice 107
reactions. Just as no survivor can recover alone, no therapist can work with
trauma alone.
The authors argue this is also the case with practitioners whose work
involves assisting individuals and communities to cope with disasters and
the resulting trauma. They, too, need support. Close supervision or wellcontained
reflective practice and supervision sessions must be offered as
an integral component of the development, delivery, and evaluation of emergency
preparedness.
TOOLS FOR TEAMS:
NARRATIVES AND FACILITATED REFLECTION
Narratives
Narratives enable individuals and groups to make sense of their experiences
and, if necessary, reframe them to accommodate new experiences
of and perspectives on the events in which they have been involved. Stories
can be a useful means of learning to understand one’s own experiences,
as well as the experiences of others.
Indeed, some cultures use this form of information sharing more than
others, as has been highlighted in research undertaken by Voulgaridou,
Papadopoulos, and Tomaras (2006). Voulgaridou and colleagues discussed
the value of cultural therapeutic mediators, who worked with them to understand
the needs of refugee communities in Greece and the cultural
influences and implications in service delivery and client adjustments to
new environments. The authors suggest older persons would benefit from
opportunities to discuss their own stories of survival within an atmosphere
of mutual cooperation and respect as a form of inoculation . It is possible,
therefore, to transfer this model of reflection and supervision to older persons
who are part of at-risk communities rather than solely to the workers
in order to help the elders learn from previous experiences, bring them
into the present, and make plans for the future (Wilson, 2008).
The authors’ experiences of using narrative and relating it to hereand-now
group processes are supported by the literature (Clarke &
Rowan, 2009). Narrative—the recounting of experience—can bring an
event to life in the here-and-now (Wood, 2007). It can therefore be argued
that narrative can be used to enable teams to learn from their processes of
working together (Reeves & Sully, 2007), both nationally and internationally,
across disciplines. Thus, narratives can enable teams to distinguish the