Stress First Aid for Healthcare Workers: A Peer Support Tool

Stress First Aid (SFA) is a peer support toolkit designed to preserve life, prevent further harm, and promote recovery. Stress First Aid offers a flexible menu of options for recognizing and addressing stress reactions. It can be used for self-care, to help co-workers with stress reactions, or to help someone seek other types of support. Stress First Aid is a framework of practical actions that can help reduce the likelihood that stress reactions will develop into more severe or long-term problems. Ideally everyone in an organization would learn the vocabulary and basics of Stress First Aid, to share a language and understanding of stress and stress injury. When everyone in an organization is trained in SFA, support could occur wherever and whenever it’s needed.