Our Methodolody

Kind people from different backgrounds volunteering their time utilising Psychological First Aid (PFA+) to provide psychosocial support to children through a helpline.

All volunteers are carefully screened by our project leadership team, have earned certification in PFA and taken a required set of training for working with children. We also ensure background checks are conducted on all volunteers to ensure none are on the sexual offenders list. In addition, volunteers sign our Ethical Agreement and Commitment form. In an effort to ensure we are not promoting the idea of children talking to strangers, BuddyBear continues to focus on it’s awareness through parents, schools, and trusted sources.

We utilize PFA+ for our volunteer team supported by trained and licensed professionals.

Psychological First Aid is an evidence-based approach for providing psychosocial support to individuals who have experienced a crisis. It has been used successfully not only internationally, but also in Malaysia during crisis situations. It has clear protocols that have been designed specifically for the use of volunteers who may or may not have a mental health background.

What is the +

• Built on the traditional framework of PFA, we added Respond - which is a set of collaborative problem solving skills that empowers both the responder as well as the recipient.

• We use a community asset based framework that identifies, co-creates and empowers the existing resources and relationships within a community.

• We accompany a community/volunteers through a structured process that builds sustainability as we transfer both knowledge and skills to enable the community/volunteer to not only be providers but future trainers.