Community oriented preparation for emergency: Cope

Abstract

Abstract This article argues the case for anticipatory intervention in schools and community in order to enhance better coping behavior in times of crisis and emergency. The different situations of stress cover loss of parent through desertion or death; long absence of parent from family (army service, hospitalization, voyage); divorce; threat to freedom, to peace, to life through enemy attack; and threat to home and hearth via economic or natural disaster. It is argued that children and teachers will benefit from certain modes of behavior, given training and practice in them before a crisis occurs. Such behavior would facilitate open expression of inner stress, via verbal and nonverbal media. Specific instructional units for use in classrooms were developed by a group of special-education students from Haifa University, who helped to implement them in several elementary and high schools in a northern development town. The units cover a variety of activities: uses of literary material, stimuli for creativ...