The Needs for Psycho Spiritual Competencies for Disaster Workers in Malaysia

Natural Disaster such as big flood, earthquake, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, fire raze, landslide, and other kinds of disaster always occurred everywhere in the world. The role of disaster workers is crucial in saving the victims in a critical situation where the inner strength to confront the dangerous situation and comfort the victims is needed. This study examines whether the training content to disaster workers possess sufficient knowledge and skills to cater the physical needs, as well as the emotional turmoil and instability situation, occurred to the victims. The secondary data sought from library and website research, scholars’ opinion from journals published and past research conducted. The psycho-spiritual competencies from the conventional and Islamic perspectives are highlighted. Differences in the two approaches were compared and evaluated. The finding shows that the disaster workers require both conventional and Islamic approaches of psycho-spiritual competencies to cater to the needs of disaster victims during the rescue process take place. Hence, Islamic psycho spiritual competencies contribute to the inner strength of the Muslim disaster workers as its emblem the soul and the spiritual heart qalb which correlated as the determinant factor of the well-being of the physical body of the human being.