Il sostegno psicologico alle reti relazionali durante la ricerca di una persona dispersa

• Main Authors: Rina Maria Galeaz, Lorenza Rossi, Fabio Sbattella
• Format: Article
• Language: Italian
• Published: Psicologi per i Popoli : Federazione 2011-06-01
• Series: Rivista di Psicologia dell'Emergenza e dell'Assistenza Umanitaria
• Subjects: emergency psychology; missing search; psychological support; guidelines
• Online Access: http://www.psicologiperipopoli.it/files/Numero%206%20Gal.pdf

The paper aims at offering a few operational guidelines in order to provide an effective professional psychological support to missing people's relatives during the first phases of search and rescue. Such guidelines emerge from the joint reflection of some members of the Milan branch of the “Associazione Psicologi per i Popoli”, after an action research period. The first draft of the guidelines presented in the paper was actually based on theoretical clues and the analysis of a range of case studies. It was further tested on the field through the association's involvement in a series of search and rescue interventions. The second draft was therefore inclusive of the findings from the field work. The operational guidelines are presented very concisely, but also briefly presenting the motivations behind the authors' organizational choices and recalling the deep psychological meanings of the experience of losing oneself, also on a symbolic level.