Psychological
First Aid: 3 Steps

Look • Listen • Link

The Psychological First Aid 3 steps help you support someone who is distressed, overwhelmed, or affected by a crisis.

The model is simple: Look, Listen, and Link.

Steps topics:

The 3 Psychological First Aid Steps

Psychological First Aid (PFA) is not therapy, counselling, diagnosis, or psychological debriefing. It is humane, supportive, practical assistance for someone who may need help.

  • Protect safety and dignity
  • Do not force help on anyone
  • Do not pressure people to tell their story
  • Focus on immediate needs first
  • Help people regain calm, connection, and control
  • Know when someone needs urgent professional or emergency help

Preparation (before psychological first aid)

Before you approach someone, pause and prepare. Even a few seconds of preparation can prevent harm and make your help more useful.

Understand what happened

  • What happened?
  • Where did it happen?
  • When did it happen?
  • Who is affected?
  • Is the situation still changing?

Understand what support is available

  • Who is already helping?
  • Are emergency services, school staff, workplace leads, family members, neighbours, or community support available?
  • Where can people access food, water, shelter, medical help, privacy, or emotional support?
  • Who can help with children, older adults, disabled people, or anyone at higher risk?

Check safety and security

  • Is there ongoing danger?
  • Can you approach without putting yourself or others at risk?
  • Are there places you should avoid?
  • Do you need help from someone with authority, medical training, or security responsibility?

If it is not safe, do not go in. Get help, keep distance, or communicate from a safer place. Psychological first aid should not create another emergency.

Step 1: Look

Look means quickly assessing the situation before acting. Crisis situations can change fast, and what you expected may not be what you find.

Look for safety

  • Is the person physically safe?
  • Are you physically safe?
  • Is there traffic, violence, fire, unstable buildings, weapons, intoxication, crowd pressure, or another risk?
  • Does the person need to move somewhere safer?
  • Are children or vulnerable people exposed to danger, media attention, or frightening scenes?

Look for urgent basic needs

  • Serious injury or medical need
  • Food, water, warmth, shelter, clothing, medication, or mobility support
  • A child separated from caregivers
  • Someone unable to care for themselves or their children
  • Someone needing protection from harm, exploitation, discrimination, or violence

Look for serious distress

  • Panic, shaking, intense crying, fear, anger, numbness, or withdrawal
  • Confusion or disorientation
  • Not speaking or not responding
  • Being frozen, immobile, or unable to make simple decisions
  • Risk of self-harm or harm to others

Most distressed people recover better when basic needs are met and they have calm support. Severe or long-lasting distress, danger to self or others, serious injury, or inability to function means the person may need more than psychological first aid.

Step 2: Listen

Listen means making respectful contact, asking what the person needs, and helping them feel calmer. The aim is not to extract a story. The aim is to support the person in the moment.

Approach respectfully

  • Introduce yourself if appropriate
  • Explain your role simply
  • Ask if you can help
  • Speak calmly
  • Keep a respectful distance based on age, culture, gender, and the situation
  • Do not touch the person unless you are sure it is appropriate

Ask about needs and concerns

  • Ask what they need right now
  • Ask what they are worried about
  • Ask who they want contacted
  • Ask what would help them feel safer or calmer
  • Do not assume you know their priorities

Listen without pressure

  • Let them speak if they want to
  • Do not force them to talk
  • Do not ask for upsetting details
  • Do not interrupt or rush
  • Do not judge their reaction
  • Do not tell them how they should feel

Help them feel calm

  • Stay nearby if they want support
  • Use a soft, steady tone
  • Help them notice where they are
  • Encourage slow breathing if useful
  • Ask them to feel their feet on the floor or notice objects around them
  • Keep very distressed people from being left alone if possible

Helpful things to say

  • “I’m here with you.”
  • “What do you need right now?”
  • “You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”
  • “Let’s focus on what needs to happen next.”
  • “I don’t know, but I can try to find out.”

Things to avoid saying

  • “You should feel lucky.”
  • “Calm down.”
  • “Everything will be fine.”
  • “Tell me exactly what happened.”
  • “I know how you feel.”
  • “At least…”

Link means helping the person connect with what they need next. This may be practical help, trusted people, accurate information, services, or urgent professional support.

Link to basic needs

  • Food, water, warmth, shelter, medication, hygiene, or transport
  • A safer place to sit or wait
  • A responsible adult for a child
  • Medical help if needed
  • Practical next steps, not overwhelming advice

Link to information

  • Give only information you know is accurate
  • Keep messages simple
  • Repeat important information if needed
  • Say clearly what you do not know
  • Explain where the information came from
  • Tell them when or where they can get updates

Link to loved ones and social support

  • Help them contact family, friends, caregivers, colleagues, or trusted people
  • Keep families together where possible
  • Do not leave children alone
  • Connect isolated people with safe support
  • Encourage support that fits their culture, faith, community, or personal preference

Link to services

  • Emergency services
  • Medical care
  • Mental health crisis support
  • School safeguarding leads
  • Workplace support
  • Local community services
  • Specialist support for children, domestic abuse, disability, bereavement, or trauma

The helper’s role is not to solve everything. The role is to help the person identify urgent needs, take the next manageable step, and regain some sense of control.

Who Needs More Support?

Some people need immediate professional or emergency support. Psychological first aid can still be supportive, but it is not enough on its own.

  • People with serious or life-threatening injuries
  • People who may harm themselves
  • People who may harm others
  • People who are so distressed they cannot care for themselves or their children
  • Children separated from caregivers
  • People experiencing severe confusion, shock, or inability to respond
  • People at risk of violence, exploitation, abuse, or neglect

In these cases, stay with the person if safe, get appropriate help, and do not try to manage the situation alone.

Quick Psychological First Aid Checklist

Before you help

  • Am I safe?
  • Are they safe?
  • What happened?
  • Who else can help?
  • What support is available?

Look

  • Is there danger?
  • Are there injuries or urgent needs?
  • Is anyone extremely distressed?
  • Is anyone vulnerable or alone?

Listen

  • Approach calmly
  • Ask what they need
  • Listen without pressure
  • Help them feel calm
  • Do not judge or force

Link

  • Help with immediate needs
  • Give accurate information
  • Connect them to trusted people
  • Link to services if needed
  • Get urgent help if there is serious risk

Summary

The steps of psychological first aid are simple but powerful: prepare before helping, look for safety and urgent needs, listen with calm respect, and link people to practical support. The aim is not to fix everything. The aim is to reduce harm, protect dignity, support calm, and help the person take the next safe step.

The 5 Principles

The 5 principles of psychological first aid are not a sequence to follow. They are outcomes to aim for: what good help should help produce in someone who is affected by crisis, distress, or trauma. The ideas are safety, calm, self-efficacy, connectedness, and hope, whether you are in a disaster, a school, a workplace, or at home.

  1. Safety
  2. Calm
  3. Self-efficacy
  4. Connectedness
  5. Hope

Learn more about the 5 principles of psychological first aid, including how they link to the 3 steps, the 8 core actions, and real situations.

For structured learning, see psychological first aid training and PFA resources and PDF manuals, and practical PFA examples.