Fifteen years ago the Russian Emergencies Ministry created the Center for Emergency Psychological Aid, which has become a leading research and practice center in the psychology of extreme situations. The article describes how psychologists help victims and rescuers, select service candidates, and work at emergency sites where support, calm, and accurate information are especially important. Over the years specialists have taken part in dozens of major emergencies and international humanitarian operations, providing help in the most difficult situations.

On September 17, fifteen years had passed since the creation of the Center for Emergency Psychological Assistance within the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. The psychological service of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations began its history in 1999 with the creation of the Center for Emergency Psychological Assistance, which is currently not only an accredited rescue formation, but also a leading scientific and practical center in the field of psychology of extreme situations.
Back in 1995, the leadership of the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters began to consider the need to create a service that would support victims and the Ministry of Emergency Situations specialists themselves working in extreme conditions, and work with people whose relatives had died or been injured in emergencies. Over these fifteen years, the specialists of the Ministry of Emergency Situations’ psychological assistance have repeatedly confirmed their high professionalism, proving the need for their profession through their work.
The main responsibilities of Ministry of Emergency Situations psychologists include several factors: psychological support for personnel (firefighters, divers, pilots, doctors, rescuers, and others) and the selection of candidates for service. Psychological training, correction and restoration of mental health, and solving problems arising in connection with the performance of professional duties. When selecting candidates, all applicants undergo comprehensive testing organized by psychologists; the testing examines personal characteristics, mental resilience, reaction speed, and the character traits of each individual. The most important object of analysis is the level of intelligence: if a person has a sufficient level of knowledge, skills, and abilities, they will be professionally successful — and vice versa. In addition, candidates must be physically resilient and flexible in assessing a situation, able to analyze their actions step by step rather than follow sudden emotional impulses. The stakes in such work are high, so for newcomers this is a very serious test, because people who choose the profession of firefighter or rescuer knowingly take risks with their own health and sometimes their lives. Another most important task is providing emergency psychological assistance to the population affected by emergencies. This area of work is assigned to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations by a Decree of the President of the Russian Federation and largely predetermined the formation and development of the ministry’s psychological service. In emergencies, psychologists are called upon, first and foremost, to support the victim and provide information that is accessible and clear to them, because in a state of acute stress people, more than in anything else, need help. Often, most victims do not even realize that they are being helped by a psychologist. Sometimes a person needs to be prompted to react in certain ways, for example, to cry, release emotions, begin to accept the situation as a given, and prepare to live with it further. And for others, in order to understand what is happening, they need to be alone and not talk to anyone. In a state of shock, people may display any behavior, including aggressive behavior.

As the senior psychologist of the Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations for the Irkutsk Region, Bogdana Vasilyeva, says.
- “At first, the victim falls into a state of hopelessness and confusion. At this stage, the help of specialists working in emergency conditions is needed. Tea, blankets, sleeping places — these seem like small things. But they give a person a certain minimum comfort in which one can think everything through, weigh it, and listen to one’s own feelings. Therefore, one cannot say that we have taken on some impossible task and are carrying it alone. Our work is a small part of a big endeavor”
Over all these years of work, psychologists from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations have provided assistance to affected people in more than 70 major federal-scale emergencies, and they took part in 17 international humanitarian operations.
In 2011, the total number of urgent deployments of specialists from the psychological service of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations amounted to more than one thousand, and emergency psychological assistance in various forms was provided in more than 40,000 cases of requests.
In everyday life, specialists of the psychological service of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations solve a wide range of tasks in three main areas: psychological training, diagnostics, rehabilitation, and prevention. Many Ministry of Emergency Situations psychologists love their work despite all its difficulties. But in their hearts, every employee of the Center, of course, hopes that times will come when there will be no emergencies, and they will have less to do.
Based on materials from the press service of the Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations for the Irkutsk Region.