There is the emergency response to a situation with the lights and sirens of first responders, but something that is relatively new to the scene is the trauma response to emotional injury. That was what Garth Tucker spoke about at a disaster recovery conference. He worked in the Emergency Operations Centre in Humboldt after the tragic bus crash in April that killed 16 people and injured 19 others. He says it used to be that the physical injuries were attended to, but the after effects of trauma weren’t recognized and could show up years later. Tucker describes an emergency situation as an iceberg where the physical injuries are the top 10 per cent which is out of the water and the emotional injuries are the 90 per cent hidden below the surface. He says society is now realizing there needs to be more support and that’s where the emotional trauma response comes in. Tucker says the provincial government through the Health Ministry and the school districts supplied the emotional trauma response in Humboldt.
pic: “counselling”