In the first, second and third parts of his research study related to approaching the subject of the need for psychology in disaster management and crises, Dr. Rashid Al -Kanouni, a researcher in social psychology, touched on the definitions related to the concept of crises and related characteristics, and whether these theoretical frameworks apply to the Corona pandemic crisis,As well as the strategies of confrontation and dealing with crises, and what distinguishes the management of the new Corona Korona in Morocco since the beginning of the crisis.
In this fourth and final part, the researcher presents the extent of the need for psychology in Morocco by managing crises, in order to study them and contribute to finding solutions to the problems resulting from them.
The need for psychology in Morocco to manage crisis:
Based on our academic specialization, we ask: What is the role that psychology can play in managing this crisis?What do we mean with the science of the same disasters and crises?How can psychology contribute to the formation of leaders capable of managing the crises we are exposed to?How do we evaluate the initiatives carried out by some parties in the face of this crisis, which start from a social psychological perspective or what some have called psychological support for some of the affected groups?We also ask: Are all the affiliates of the field of psychology qualified to work in the field of disasters and crises?
We have already indicated that the concept of crisis management appeared in the field of international relations in the 1960s when the Soviet missile crisis erupted on Cuban territory.After the end of this crisis, some new non -security and non -classical methods entered into the management of crises, including some psychological methods that are based on some rules called the art of crisis management, the psychology of crisis management or crisis psychology.
The first studies on facing crises are from a psychological perspective to Erich Lindmann, a psychiatrist through his research on the repercussions of the crisis left by a fire that broke out in a cabaret in 1942. And based on his study of the mourning process in the survivors of this fire, some of them suffered burns orThey lost some of their relatives, explained that this process consists of three basic stages, namely:
A shock caused by a painful event;
The reaction of this position;
Restore a person with a difference in the level of this organization.
With the beginning of the fifties of the last century, Gerald Caplan has completed a set of important studies, through which he concluded that the crisis has occurred in a person's balance in his environment.After that, a set of psychological studies that showed that the concept of the crisis refers us to a loss, whether material, social, psychological or symbolic, which require individuals and groups to accept the situation and start the stage of sadness and psychological recovery.
On the other hand, the World Health Organization was concerned with its role in the problems caused by the major emergency situations, and it distinguished between two types of these problems:
Social problems that include:
The problems already exist: such as poverty and the distinction of marginalized groups;
The problems arising from emergency situations: such as family separation, insecurity, loss of livelihoods, imbalance of social tissue networks, and low degree of trust and resources;
The problems of humanitarian response: overcrowding, loss of privacy, and undermining societal or traditional support.
Mental health problems:
The problems already exist: mental disorders such as depression, schizophrenia, or alcohol addiction;
Problems resulting from emergency situations: sadness and sorrow, acute reactions caused by stress, alcohol use and addiction materials, depression and anxiety, including the disturbance of the next distress for satisfaction;
The problems of the humanitarian response: the anxiety caused by the lack of information about the distribution of food or how to obtain basic services.
These complex problems resulting from crises require confronting the contribution of various cognitive fields, the most prominent psychology, because with its various branches closest to studying the status of the crisis and contributing to finding solutions to the problems resulting from them.Psychology, no matter how different scientists in its definition, is the total scientific study of behavior, reason, thinking and personality and works to apply psychological knowledge to human problems to try to solve them.
As Marie-hérèse neuillly, a socialist and expert in crisis management, said: “Psychology like other humanities and social sciences is invited to interfere in troubled contexts, at the request of individuals who suffer from instability and suffering and who are in a positionCaring.The crisis is related to the concepts of suspicion, fragility, estrangement and shock.
From this standpoint, we believe that in Morocco we are not aware of the importance of psychology in managing many of the crises that we are going through;We often limit his roles in helping people with mental and mental illnesses, and there are those who consider it a theoretical science that has no unnecessary life, and there are those who confuse it with philosophy, and there are those who confuse the psychiatrist with the psychologist, and even those who confuse these and those who are currently practicing in what we call developmentSelf or human ... etc.
There is no doubt that psychology in our country is still looking for itself and developing its contributions in some fields and expanding its spread at the Moroccan University after it was limited to a long era in limited colleges and in small numbers of its affiliates.There is no doubt that the teaching of psychology in turn needs to develop and reconsider as it needs a framework that regulates the work of psychologists ... etc., there is no doubt about all of this, but I re -ask a question that Dr. Abdel Karim Belhadj had previously asked: “Do we in Morocco have a willingness to acceptPsychology in our lives, from its own intimate space to its wide and public space?
It is a major question of several branches that we cannot surround in this paper, but we are living in the repercussions of the Koruna's pandemic, it is clear that the need for psychology is increasing day by day, and that the state has to accelerate to open the workshops of developing this flag in our country and its organization. We have noticed how some initiatives have multiplied by a group of psychology belonging, there is no doubt that it needs to be evaluated. Not all belonging to the field of psychology, whether they are professors studying in universities or qualified psychologists to work when crises occur. Listening and providing support and psychological accompaniment to those affected by the crisis of what is subject to scientific rules and controls has become a specialized scientific in a specialized in practical training, and I do not think that we are currently available on all of this in light of the status of psychology in our country. Perhaps this is what Dr. Yusriya Sadiq and Dr. Zakaria El-Sherbiny indicate by saying: “Dealing with crises and disasters-psychologically-among the issues of importance, and although the psychological effects of disasters may be more severe than that or biological, but we are as specialists in science The soul still needs to understand our role that we can contribute to crises. ”
Based on this, the university and training institutes in Morocco should embrace specializations on crisis management from a social psychological perspective, in which the theories of psychology in managing crises and associated topics are taught such as studying psychological pressures caused by crises in general and methods of prevention and treatment of psychological disorders that occur, in additionTo study behaviors, relationships and interactions that occur in societies by these crises and how to mobilize society to confront its psychological, social, cultural, economic and political repercussions.
And if we call for the introduction of this scientific branch in the Moroccan University, we do not only mean to teach it to students of psychology or even create a specialization within the existing specializations such as social, clinical or cognitive psychology ... but rather benefit from it in forming frameworks that are more friction in the field of crises, and we indicate in This framework is to the medical colleges or training institutes of the Royal Armed Forces, the police, the gendarmerie and civil protection; As these institutes come out men and women who are in the front rows when crises occur. The National High School of Administration and the Institute for Training Fires must include jewelry on the psychology of crisis management, two institutes specializing in forming frameworks that will manage the programs that the state supervises during or after crises.
The management of crises begins before they occur by setting strategies and programs, preparing guarantees and protocols, and providing financial and supply reserves, as well as providing human resources capable of working professionally at the time of crisis. Not all doctors, managers, men and women of the territorial administration are eligible for that, just as not all psychologists can provide added value in all cases. Psychology in emergencies and disasters, as some researchers know, "is a branch of psychology that includes studying behavior and the way individuals, groups, or human groups react in the various stages of the state of emergency or disasters."
Someone may say that we exaggerate the importance of psychology in crisis management, but the matter is not. There is a relationship between the intervention of the field of psychology and the intervention of other fields of knowledge fields. The imposition of quarantine and the guarantee of its success, for example, not only requires the issuance of a legal or regulatory text and the keenness to organize it in a purely security manner. Also, addressing false news and rumors does not require issuing reports that deny and deny what is promoted, and the success of the public authorities and departments in downloading the procedures that the state is preparing for the availability of leaders with certain specifications. Community mobilization to counter crises and take off in the affected areas then require a joint work between various cognitive fields. Therefore, the psychologist who works in this field is linked to men and women working in other professions such as doctors, police, army and civil protection, and they may be social workers, engineers, economists ... etc.
Our country has shown a great ability to deal with the Korona pandemic, and the government took a set of measures that have been noted inside and outside Morocco. This crisis also enabled the recognition of the competencies of men and women who were distinguished by leadership qualifications and high capabilities in managing this crisis. And I believe that the crises and psychological pressures have a role in showing the positive aspect of Moroccans, and some of them are currently in the front rows to manage this crisis. But this field requires careful tribal planning and thinking about everything that will manage our crises in high quality. To achieve this goal, we need to open up to different cognitive fields, among them psychology that international experiences have also been needed in the event of crises and emergency.