Clayfield Counselling Services

Newsletter Archive

March 2011

News

The year to date, has been one crisis after another, first Australia experienced wide spread flooding, then earthquakes rocked New Zealand, again, this time causing extensive damage and loss of life. Now Japan is facing the mammoth task of rebuilding after the tsunami wiped out many thousands of lives. The true cost of these disasters will be tallied up over the coming months and the effects will be felt for many years.

Our January and February issues of our newsletter focussed on coping with a crisis in the short term and symptoms of psychological trauma to look out for over the coming months. This month we are going to look at how these traumatic events have or will impact on the first responders and helpers during these events.

The first responders and emergency workers

Whilst there are many support mechanisms in place for the first responders to natural events, such as access to counselling and so forth, there is often a stigma attached. For many, the enormity of the event and how it impacts on the community is more important that anything they might have felt or seen. So, rather than utilising the mechanisms in place they put aside their feelings to be addressed at a later date. But somehow, something else happens and eventually they don’t have the time or they feel they’ve processed what has happened and are fine.

There are a number of counselling methods used; however these all depend on the situation, the number of people involved and their proximity to the event. The most common types are for critical incident stress management, which include defusing, debriefing and follow – up.

Defusing is one of the most important counselling tools for people who work in high risk employment and emergency services. It involves sitting down and talking to a counsellor the day of or within 24 hours of witnessing an event or natural disaster. It is designed to assure the person that their feelings are normal and informs them of what symptoms to watch for and offer any assistance that may be required.

Debriefing, is more involved and allows the person to talk about what has happened, how they feel about it, and discuss coping mechanisms. It also enables a person to identify if anyone is at risk or not coping as well as they could be. It is about recognising if a person is safe and able to cope well and if necessary refer them onto individual counselling with a professional. It is usually carried out within 72 hours of witnessing the event.

Follow up is also important as it allows the counsellor to ascertain how a person is coping, this is usually done one week after the event.

All emergency services in Queensland offer this type of critical incident counselling, however, for some whilst initially they don’t present with any psychological or physical symptoms. They may experience difficulties weeks or months after the event, this means that they sometimes fall through the cracks.

For this type of trauma; counselling is very important, so if you or someone you know, find that they are experiencing difficulties. It is important to seek help, and be assured that what you are feeling is quite understandable, after witnessing the effects of a natural disaster or traumatic event.

Thought of the Month

Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.- Confucius