DEALING WITH THE PSYCHOLOGICAL AFTERMATH OF A TERRORIST ATTACK - Part 10

There are the first responders. In one of the planning meetings we had, I asked this question, “how many Policemen or ambulance staff in NZ would have come across one hundred victims of gunshots, half of them dead, in a single room?” The answer is obviously zero. Something like this had never happened before in NZ. The firs hand account I heard from some of the first responder ambulance staff was too graphic to quote here but I made me realize how they must have been traumatised by this experience. You can’t ‘unsee’ some things you have seen.


Then there were the staff at hospital who would have received those injured and treated them, and who would have received the bodies of the deceased and processed.


This kind of trauma has a ripple effect. The concentric circles go farther and farther with time. When planning psychological help for victims, all these victims should be kept in mind and the psychological effects on them should never be underestimated. The estimate in ChCh was that there would be between 1000-1200 people who needed to be screened for development of long-term psychiatric illnesses.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FOLLOWING NEW CONTENT ON THIS PAGE

 Assalam Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah  Having posted the same content on Facebook, this Google blog, Twitter and WhatsApp, the scribe has learnt that most people follow this content on the other three media, and hardly anyone on Google Blogger. Therefore, from now on the scribe will stop posting on this blog. Those who wish to follow the new content can do so on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/groups/1827355620834976 Twitter https://twitter.com/SyedAhmerNZ or by joining the WhatsApp group 'ISLAM SAYS' by clicking this link https://chat.whatsapp.com/GC6q8A1ezfcCMlrdKQCiD9 Wassalam and Jazak Allah Khair
Read more

Usmani Discourses Volume. 2

Image
  Alhamdulillah the second volume of the collection of translations of Mufti Taqi Usmani sahib's (DB) talks is now ready. Because of the Covid situation around the world I decide to just publish it as an e-book at this time. However, there is no restriction on anyone who wants to publish it in print and may want to distribute it. My first and foremost thanks and gratitude to Mufti Taqi Usmani sahib himself. As you know I am not a religious scholar. I had started translating his talks for my children, family, and friends who are unable to read Urdu. When I had first told him, I was shocked when he had written back, "publish it as a book when you have translated enough material." I didn't think (and still don't think) it was my place for my name to be associated with such an eminent and one of the foremost scholar of our times but I told myself that if he is telling me to do it, there must be some Khair (good) in it, so I took it on as a lifelong project. May the re
Read more

SEEKING FORGIVENESS FOR GHEEBAT (BACKBITING)? - 7 (a talk by Mufti Taqi Usmani DB)

  Seek forgiveness from all your acquaintances   The next question is, who to seek forgiveness from? Who remembers how many people’s  Gheebat  we committed throughout our lives when we were completely neglectful about it? Should we draw up a list of all of them and ask all of them for forgiveness? Hadhrat Mufti Muhammad Shafi (may Allah have mercy on him) used to say that Paradise is not cheap. If you really want to go to Paradise then you will have to make some effort for it. Draw up a list of all your acquaintances, all your friends, all your relatives, and then seek forgiveness from all of them.
Read more