| Six years ago after the tragic death of a
Frontier High School student, the principal assembled a group of people
to provide support and crisis response services to the students. Many
of the responders realized the need for an organized group to provide
mental health crisis services to Washington County residents and, under
the leadership of Reverend Aaron Payson, the Washington County Community
Crisis Response Team (WCCCRT) was formed. The team is comprised of community
volunteers who have been trained in nationally recognized models of
crisis response. Sponsored by the Washington County Mental Health &
Addiction Recovery Board, the team has responded to numerous crisis
events, the majority to county schools after the death of a student.
Over the years I have learned as much from those affected by traumatic
events as I ever learned in training.
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- People are amazingly resilient. After the 1998 flood I
was part of the WCCCRT response to the flooded areas. I was, and
still am, in awe of the strength of spirit I witnessed. Among the
ravaged homes and properties, among the families who found themselves
without clothing or shelter, there stood communities who were absolutely
resolved to rebuilding their lives. Men, women, and children worked
almost nonstop for weeks to secure their homes and, almost to a
person, expressed concern for friends and neighbors who they felt
were worse off than they were. The victims worked together, cried
together, and found a way to heal together. Few were immobilized
by the disaster; most worked doggedly to restore what was lost.
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- People must be allowed to grieve.
Repressed trauma responses have been linked to many later problems,
including depression and substance abuse. I recently read an article
that suggested that crisis response teams could cause more harm
than good, and I believe that is possible. There is a very human
tendency, particularly when working with young people, to want to
stop the pain and "fix it." Crisis responders must check
this impulse. The unspoken message to the affected person may be
that their pain is bothering others or that how they are reacting
is wrong. Crisis responders must clearly understand that grieving
is a highly personal and variable process that is essential to emotional
healing and rarely needs tampered with. We must be able to be with
people who are in emotional pain without totally absorbing it and
becoming overwhelmed OR becoming aloof in an effort to distance
ourselves from it.
- Being there is the greatest gift.
At our team's most recent response to a high school, I realized
that the more responses in which I participate, the less I do. At
one point I may have felt compelled to insert myself in the students'
gatherings, wipe the tears, and direct the conversation in the debriefing
manner I have been taught. As I stood in the cafeteria watching
groups of students cry together and memorialize their friend's death
by creating posters and signs, I realized that they were doing exactly
what they needed to do to navigate the experience. There is definitely
a time and place for individual and group crisis interventions,
but, as a student told me later, teens do not always find it easy
to talk to adults but our being there felt supportive and comforting
Individuals who experience a crisis event must not be steered away
from their emotional responses unless that response poses a threat
to themselves or others. They must be reassured that their reactions
are not abnormal or wrong, but are normal reactions to an abnormal
event. The WCCCRT knows it cannot take away all of the hurt the team
encounters in its responses, but can work to create a safe and supportive
environment in which affected persons can move toward healing.
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