Camp is joy most of the time. But it is also the first night away from home, the darkness that doesn't exist in the city, the unexpected thunder, the finger that bleeds at the campfire, the bad news that arrives by phone. And then, all of a sudden, a Pathfinder falls apart in front of you: crying nonstop, trembling, not breathing right, or simply freezing and not responding.
At that moment, you don't need to be a psychologist. You need to know how to be there. There is a simple method, tested in disasters, wars and emergencies all over the world, made precisely for people who are not health professionals: psychological first aid (PFA). The World Health Organization (WHO) published the official guide in 2011, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) translated it into Portuguese in 2015.
This article takes that method and puts it inside the tent. Nothing here replaces medical or psychological care — when the case is serious, you call for help. But until help arrives, and in the vast majority of small crises that never come to that, the person there is you. Content verified on 07/22/2026 in the official sources listed at the end.
What is psychological first aid (and what is it not)?
The WHO definition is short: psychological first aid is a humane, supportive response to someone who is suffering and may need help. Full stop. There's no technical mystery to it.
It's easier to understand by what it is not. PFA is not therapy or professional counseling — you're not going to treat anyone. It is not "psychological debriefing": don't ask the person to narrate in detail what happened, because forcing someone to relive the scare right afterward can make things worse, and the WHO itself advises against that practice. And it is not just for specialists: the guide was written precisely for ordinary, trained people — teachers, volunteers, first responders and, in our case, club counselors and directors.
The logic behind this is well founded. In 2009, a group of WHO experts reviewed the evidence and concluded that, for someone in acute stress right after a difficult event, the right thing is to offer psychological first aid — not the old debriefing. In other words: support, stabilize and connect. Don't dig into the wound.
At camp, this changes everything. You stop asking yourself "what do I say?" and start asking "how do I make this child feel safer right now?". The answer is almost never the right words. It's presence, calm and practical help.
The WHO's three principles: look, listen, link
The whole guide fits into three verbs. The WHO and PAHO call them action principles: look, listen and link. They happen more or less in that order, but in practice they blend together.
Look. Before you act, stop for a second and look around. Is the place safe? Is something still threatening (fire, water, height, the animal that caused the scare)? Who is most affected? Who has an urgent need — an injury, shortness of breath, a risk of getting hurt? The guide insists: take some time, however brief, to look before offering help. Rushing at the person without reading the scene is mistake number one.
Listen. Approach the person who needs you, introduce yourself by name and state your role ("Hi, I'm Lucas, a counselor from your unit"). Take the person to a calmer place if you can. Then listen — attentively, without judging, without pressuring them to talk and without talking too much yourself. Being silent beside someone is already support. Help the person calm down and ask, gently, what they need most right now.
Link. This is the practical part. Help the person solve what can be solved: meet a basic need (water, a coat, food, the restroom), reunite them with a friend or someone they trust, call their parents, refer them to the person responsible for health at camp. Linking is connecting the person to what will keep helping them after you step away.
| Principle | Question it answers | At camp |
|---|---|---|
| Look | Is it safe? Who needs help most? | Check the scene, move away from danger, identify who is worst off |
| Listen | What does this person need? | Introduce yourself, move to a calm corner, listen without forcing them to talk |
| Link | How do I connect the person to help? | Water, a friend nearby, call the parents, notify the person responsible |
The 8 core actions, applied to the tent
The WHO's three principles give the map. For those who want a finer step-by-step, there is a detailed version used all over the world: the eight core actions from the field guide of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), the leading U.S. network on childhood trauma, together with the National Center for PTSD. It's the same spirit as the WHO, only broken into steps.
They fit almost perfectly into the reality of a Pathfinder camp. It's not a rigid sequence — you use whichever one the situation calls for:
| # | Core action | In practice, with a Pathfinder |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Contact and engagement | Approach calmly, say your name and role, without intruding. Make clear you're there for them. |
| 2 | Safety and comfort | Take them to a quiet place away from the trigger. Offer water, a coat, a place to sit. |
| 3 | Stabilization (if needed) | If they're disoriented or in a panic, anchor them in the here and now with a calm voice and simple steps. |
| 4 | Gathering needs and concerns | Ask what troubles them most right now. It could be homesickness, fear of the dark, a message from the parents. |
| 5 | Practical assistance | Help with something concrete: find the lost item, reschedule the activity, arrange a call home. |
| 6 | Connection with supports | Reconnect them with friends from the unit, a trusted counselor, an older sibling at the club. |
| 7 | Information on coping | Explain that their reaction is normal and temporary. Teach a slow breath, a routine for falling asleep. |
| 8 | Referral | Hand the case to those who take care: director, person responsible for health at the event, parents and, if serious, emergency services. |
Notice how almost everything is action, not conversation. A glass of water and a blanket calm more than ten beautiful sentences. And look at action 8: it exists to remind you that your role has a limit. Supporting in the moment is up to you. Treating anything beyond that is up to those trained for it.
Homesickness: the most common crisis at camp
If you've been a counselor, you know the scene. Night falls on the first day, the bustle dies down, and someone starts crying quietly in the tent. It's homesickness — and it's the most frequent emotional crisis at any camp for children and youth. It seems small. To the 10-year-old, it isn't.
Apply the principles in order. Look: the child is safe, just suffering. Listen: sit beside them, say your name, let them cry. Don't tell them to stop, don't say it's "silly". Validate: "It makes sense to miss home. It's your first time away, right?". Link: give a concrete task for the night, bring them close to a friend from the unit, agree that tomorrow morning, at a set time, they'll call their parents.
Three moves help a lot with homesickness: normalizing ("several people here are feeling the same"), anchoring in time ("three days left, and tomorrow there's the hike you wanted") and providing predictability (showing the next day's schedule). What homesickness takes away is the sense of control. Giving back a small piece of control is half the support.
A real caution: if homesickness turns into a total refusal to eat, to sleep or to take part for days, crying that won't ease at all, or talk of wanting to "disappear", that has stopped being ordinary homesickness. That's the time to involve the director and the parents — and not to keep trying to solve it alone in the tent.
Read alsoWhen to call SAMU 192Panic and scares: how to stabilize in the moment
Thunder, a snake on the trail, a fall, bad news. The body fires up: racing heart, short and rapid breathing, trembling, uncontrollable crying, or the opposite — the person freezes, goes silent, seems "shut off". It's an acute stress reaction, and it frightens whoever sees it. Your calm is the first remedy.
The key action here is stabilization. Speak slowly, in a low, firm voice. Call them by name. Tell them where they are and that they're safe now: "You're here with me, at camp, and it's over". A simple, safe grounding technique is to ask the person to name five things they see, four they hear, three they can touch — this brings attention back to the present and cuts the panic spiral.
For breathing, guide slow cycles, with the air going out more slowly than it comes in (breathe in counting to four, let it out counting to six). If it helps, breathe along so they copy your rhythm. Don't hold the person down by force, don't shout, don't throw water in their face. Stay close, offer water once they calm down, and only then — without rushing and without an interrogation — ask what they need.
It's important to tell apart what belongs to the body. If there's fainting, injury, shortness of breath that doesn't improve, chest pain, an allergic reaction or any suspicion of a medical emergency, that's a case for physical first aid and for the person responsible for health at the event — immediately. Emotional support and medical care go together, but the doctor doesn't wait.
What never to do
Much of the damage doesn't come from lack of action — it comes from the wrong action, done with good intentions. The WHO and PAHO guide is clear about what to avoid. Keep this list:
- Never promise what you don't control. "Everything will be fine" may not be true, and the child senses it. Prefer "I'm here with you" and "we'll sort this out together".
- Never force the person to talk or to recount in detail what happened. That's debriefing, and the WHO advises against it. Let whoever wants to talk do so, at their own pace.
- Never minimize. "That's nothing", "stop making a fuss", "at your age I didn't cry" — each of these sentences closes the door.
- Never leave alone someone in intense panic, very disoriented or showing any sign of wanting to hurt themselves.
- Never use support to embarrass. No exposing the child in front of the unit, taking a photo of the crying moment or turning it into gossip afterward.
- Never be alone, isolated and out of others' sight, with a minor. Provide support in a quiet but visible place — and, whenever possible, with another adult nearby. It's protection for the child and for you.
And the opposite of each mistake: presence instead of a promise, listening instead of a forced question, validation instead of minimization, company instead of abandonment. Simple to list, hard to do under pressure — that's why you train beforehand.
When it's beyond your PFA: warning signs and who to call
Psychological first aid has a limit, and recognizing that limit is part of doing it well. Some situations call for advanced help right away, not tomorrow. The WHO guide itself lists people who need more than PFA.
Call the person responsible for health at camp, the director and the parents — and an emergency service when appropriate — in the face of any of these signs:
- Serious injury, fainting or any medical emergency that threatens life.
- The person talks about hurting themselves, dying or "disappearing", or tries to hurt themselves.
- Risk of hurting another person.
- A state of intense confusion, not recognizing where they are, not responding.
- A crisis that doesn't ease after plenty of time of support and care.
Useful numbers in Brazil, all free and 24 hours: SAMU 192 for medical emergencies, Fire Department 193 for rescue, and the CVV 188 (Center for the Valuing of Life) for emotional support and suicide prevention. Keep those numbers and the parents' contacts printed and accessible — don't count on remembering them in the middle of a crisis.
Worth repeating in no uncertain terms: this guide does not replace professional care. It's what you do in the minutes when you're the person present. Whenever the case goes beyond immediate support, the right thing is to refer — without guilt, without heroics. Asking for help is the eighth action, not a failure.
How to prepare the team before camp
The best psychological first aid starts weeks before any crisis. A well-prepared camp turns the panic of the moment into routine.
Agree with the club's leadership, at the meeting before the event: who is responsible for health (ideally someone with a first aid course), where the medical form and the contacts for each Pathfinder are kept, and what the flow is — who the counselor calls first, who calls the parents, who decides to call the SAMU. A single sheet, posted in the camp office, solves it.
Talk with the counselors about the three principles before you leave. The first-night homesickness is no surprise: it's almost certain. Arriving knowing it will happen, and with a simple plan to support, is what separates a hard night from a traumatic one. And remind the team of the basics that change everything: food on time, enough sleep, water and a predictable routine prevent half the emotional crises before they're even born.
Caring for the soul at camp isn't doing therapy under the canvas. It's being present, with calm and with a plan, when a Pathfinder needs it most. Any club can do that — and it's one of the most beautiful things the club does.