Geriatric Mental Health Disaster and Emergency Preparedness

Chapter 6 Supervision and Facilitated Refl ective Practice 113
unconscious collusion with the team and the possibility of missing vital aspects
of interprofessional working that could be inadvertently detrimental
to the overall team task. In this way, the supervision of the facilitators supports
their maintenance of professional boundaries such that they mirror
safe practice and containment to the team while they enable practitioners
to explore their work together.
The safety provided by supervision enables the growth and sensitivity
of the internal supervisor (Casement, 1985) within the facilitators and
practitioners, with resulting transformation of practice (Reeves & Sully,
2007). The internal supervisor is the capacity of the practitioner to reflect
during the practice process on how clients might experience their situation
and their relationship with the practitioner and, thus, how they might
receive, perceive, and construe the practice interventions offered. This
ability to try to see the world from the client’s point of view can enable the
practitioner to gain insight into how the client might be feeling and what
help might be worthwhile. The authors suggest that the internal supervisor
involves more than reflection-in-action (Schön, 1987) as it involves the
whole person of the practitioner—thoughts, feelings, interactions, physical
sensations, posture, and gesture.
Once the supportive supervisory relationship, which is central to
sound supervision (Hawkins & Shohet, 2006; Hazler, 2001; Hughes &
Pengelly, 1997; Sawdon & Sawdon, 1995; Wood, 2007) has been established,
the two facilitators are then available to conduct reflective practice
sessions should an incident occur. The benefit of reflective practice
sessions during all phases of an incident is that practitioners will have an
arena in which to consider professional, interprofessional, national, and
international processes as well as actions.
Reflective Practice Benefits the Community
It is not only practitioners who can benefit from the use of reflective practice
but also individuals and communities who might be involved in a passive
role. True preparation requires sufficient knowledge of a variety of
factors including but not limited to type of emergency, likelihood, imminence,
level of response, and expected assistance. Preparation for disasters
in communities at high risk is a “form of psychological immunization”
(Hoff, Hallisey, & Hoff, 2009, p. 468) for practitioners and communities
who face the likelihood of disastrous events. At the stage of information
provision, practitioners, both individual and organizational, can identify
and draw upon the resources available to them and to the community that