Since the war in ukraine broke out, we hear of people in a state of amazement, and of a tool that would help them get out of it. It is called the “6C protocol” and can be useful to understand and apply to victims of intense emotional shock, in case of war but also outside. Explanations.
Journalist Nicolas Delesalle recently advised reporters still present in Ukraine on Twitter to seize it, he explained that it was used by the Israeli, American and German armies as “emergency psychological first aid”. A protocol that he himself had the opportunity to use on several occasions and which allows reduce the risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder.
I had the opportunity to apply this protocol a dozen times during my report. It allows very simply to get out of their state of amazement of the victims by asking them simple questions which mobilize their prefrontal cortex. It’s not magic. That works.
— Nicolas Delesalle (@KoliaDelesalle) March 14, 2022
Under what circumstances should it be used?
War is obviously a context where this protocol is useful, but this is also the case for victims of natural or health disasters, attacks, accidents whether they take place on land, at sea, in the air (plane accident) or quite simply in the face of a domestic accident which would leave the person in shock. To get a victim out of the stupefaction of a rapeharassment or any other assaultthe method is useful too.
This protocol developed in Israel by Professor Moshe Farchi can be useful whatever the circumstances, as long as we are faced with someone who presents symptoms of distress such as emotional overflow, bewilderment, loss of contact with reality.
How to set it up?
The six words that define the “6C” all start with this letter: Commitment, Challenge, Control, Cognition, Continuity, Communication. The goal is to allow the person to get out of the amazement. It is a protocol of cognitive and functional activity, emphasizes Emmanuelle Halioua in a video from the Brut media. On the SixC Protocol sitean explanatory video emphasizes that the objective is to mobilize the cognitive component of the brain and not the emotional component.
Concretely, we will ask simple things to the person in emotional distress. We’re going to ask her: “what’s your name?” Give her a “simple challenge to do,” the site notes, like involving her in the rescue. Nicolas Delesalle says that after a bombardment in Zhytomyr, he met a man in a state of shock, who had just lost his wife and who froze and could no longer move or speak. So the journalist asks him a question that does not call for elaborate reflection: “What is the make of your car? Do you have children? Do you have a mobile phone?” open questions that engage the prefrontal cortex.
What is observed is that the victim “switches” from shock to active functioning by lowering the stress. This method has the advantage of being able to be applied by everyone, without necessarily being a health professional, even by children.
Sources:Twitter Nicolas DelesalleGross, Protocolsixc, Huffington Post.
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