INTERVENTION WITH CHILD VICTIMS OF TRAUMA IN THE SCHOOL SETTING

M.S Sara Dawod

CASE PRESENTATION: THE TRAUMATIC EVENT

The traumatic event: teacher killed

The briefing and time for defusing give faculty and support staff the opportunity to ask questions about what happened, express a small measure of their own grief, and then discuss and decide how to deal with the students.

They present the known facts, discuss normal grief reactions, and then open the floor to discussion. While everyone is alert and watches for students who are more distressed.

STRESS REACTION 10 percent of those children and adults will experience

profound, long-lasting stress effects.

Cognitive symptoms: - Memory loss.- Difficulty with problem solving. - Loss of attention and concentration.

Emotional symptoms: - Anxiety. - Fear.- Depression. - Irritability.

- Anger.

TRAUMATIC STRESSORS MAY LEAD TO TRAUMATIC STRESS REACTIONS

Traumatic stressors upset the equilibrium of the person & often result in disorganization and inability to cope.

FACTORS OF THE TRAUMATIC IMPACT UPON THE CHILDREN:

Perceived threat to life. Time duration of the trauma. Causation of the loss (man-made, God-made,

intentional). Manner in which the event affects the beliefs and

expectations.

KEY FACTORS

How the event fits into the child’s life view .

social support to the child.

level of seriousness of the trauma. (duration, frequency, source, type).

CHILD’S BELIEFS & TRAUMA

School personnel must determine first what beliefs the event challenges or changes in that child’s mind.

Traumatic events invalidates aspects of child’s previous view of the world.

If the traumatic event is long-term and chronic denial frequently occurs after the initial outcry and alarm phase. It may occur via repression, dissociation, amnesia, or splitting into multiple personalities if the trauma is extremely severe.

MAJOR GOAL FOR SCHOOL CRISIS RESPONSE TEAM

Help students and staff achieve cognitive completion and integration into a model of the world and individual assumptions that negate self-blame.

INTERVENTION

1- ESTABLISHING A SCHOOL-BASED CRISIS RESPONSE TEAM

The crisis team must be willing to accept responsibility to provide needed services.

crisis team:

1. Must be aware of ancillary community services and agencies.

2. Define frontline plan of service prior to the occurrence of a crisis.

3. Should be given crisis response training and be familiar with post-traumatic stress theory and intervention principles as well as grief theory.

4. Need to know principles of group work and how to run groups as facilitators.

5. Must be able to manage anxiety-based reactions of students and staff in a quiet, non punitive, direct manner.

7. Handle intense emotional expression without falling apart.

8. Must give others permission to express feelings while providing emotional support.

9. Must teach coping and problem-solving skills.

10. They must be empathic, not sympathetic, reflective, and calmative.

11. They must be willing to work extended hours, keeping school open if the situation demands,

12. Must be aware of the principles of child development , age and stage appropriate conceptual reasoning abilities.

HELPING STUDENTS AFFECT THEM

By helping students who have been traumatized to debrief team members prevent or minimize the existence of long-term post-traumatic reactions.

Mobilization of resources both within and outside the system, is important and necessary.

Providing support, understanding, empathy, and care to a traumatized child helps that child express grief, loss, and other post-trauma emotions.

2- GROUP MEETINGS OR ASSEMBLIES

If the school is large or the stressor trauma impacts large numbers, demand for crisis services is high. This demand may exceed the resources of the school.

In these instances, additional external personnel maybe asked to offer assistance – personnel from a local mental health agency.

Students maybe grouped by grade level. When this happens it is important to station a number of

sensitive staff at various points in the rooms to observe student reactions and approach those who are especially upset. Local mental health can fill in.

In case of suicide event, nothing that indicates the glorification of the acts or acts should be used, so that possible contagion is avoided. Because there’s an extremely high probability that a second suicide will occur.

It’s extremely important to include a suicide prevention component in the assembly.

Students are invited to share healthy, adaptive responses they have used to cope, while avoiding self-destructive acts.

Education about the normalcy of a post-traumatic and grief reaction and the stages of healing needs to be included as part of the message.

Speakers may suggest ways to cope with the traumatic events that give more meaning to what has happened.

Assembly concludes with a message of hope and a reiteration of factual information about what will happen next.

Attendance are given a challenging message to help restore morale and to establish a goal.

Assemblies and general meetings should last approximately one hour.

3- SMALL GROUP INTERVENTION

Students whose grief reactions are inappropriate, extreme, and were close to the deceased should be escorted to waiting professionals for small group and individual sessions.

These people often do not seek to be part of large groups. These groups are generally geared toward crisis

intervention and are led by two professionals.

While one leads the discussion the other observes the group to note who appears to be at a greater risk of developing acute post-traumatic stress reaction or disorder.

Weinberg says: “close friends with the victim(s) may have had a pre existing conflict with the deceased that was not resolved or are unable to accept the reality of the death.”

At times these students are unable to control of their emotions and express extreme grief, may express extreme, self-punitive anger and self blame, may have suicidal thoughts, insinuations or ruminations, or may self – mulitate.

Number of members should only be 15 individuals.

Purpose of the group:

1. Allow the persons to talk about the event and its impact on them and their involvement in the event.

2. Respect boundaries of confidentiality and encouraged to talk only for themselves.

3. to discussing the normalcy of grief and traumatic reactions, correct false information about what happened during the event, give facts about what will happen next.

4. Share what they thought about the event when they heard of it.

5. Helped to examine current and past losses and identify proactive, empowering coping strategies.

These groups are not aimed as “cures” for traumatic reactions. Instead, they are designed to minimize the later occurrence of disruptive post-traumatic stress reactions and therefore are in essence, preventive.

PRINCIPLES OF POST TRAUMATIC INDIVIDUAL COUNSELING FOR CHILDREN

CONCLUSIONS

Time heals all wounds, unless wounds are buried, repressed or dissociated and until the wounds intrude into the child’s life at a later time.

Also children are resilient, but those who get positive attention from others, who have a sense of meaning of life, who are bounded with caretakers, and demonstrate faith, hope, humor are more likely to heal.