| Summary: | In the last decades, we have seen a rapid growth in the culture of prevention, safety and care for people involved in dramatic events. These calamites, both natural and human made, can have a profound effect on the mental stability of individuals and communities. These effects can have consequences on people, which may go on for days, months and even years during the recovery, rebuilding and re-establishment of an ordinary situation. Each event due to these circumstances is an emergency from a technical-practical and also human point of view. And that is because people are forced to fight in order to survive physically and emotionally in a state of dangerousness and dramatic force. During an emergency it is necessary to help people recognize normality in their own reactions, which are consequences of a situation out of ordinary. A greater focus on the emotional and cognitive component of the person involved is needed. Actually, this component proves to be very important both for the successful management of the situation - being involved in the prevention and preparation phases - and for its contribution to a mitigation of the effects of a specific event. It is widely known that during an emergency, interventions by psychologists trained to face various contexts (e.g., incidents, natural disasters and so on) and able to cooperate with other professionals are needed. The aim is to promote in the people involved, both rescuers and victims, the capacity to cope with the situation, in the short term and in the long term.
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