In the wake of these violent acts, it is vital to our community’s health that individuals experiencing persistent symptoms of distress seek help from a trained mental health professional.
In the wake of these violent acts, it is vital to our community’s health that individuals experiencing persistent symptoms of distress seek help from a trained mental health professional. It is also recommended that people limit their exposure and that of their children to media coverage of the shootings.
What is needed now is to support the development of positive mental health where families and child development are front and center. We have a collective responsibility to build policy and programs so that we can combat these violent offenses by strengthening the mental health of our communities and by doing so we can reduce the rates at which behavioral and social problems occur.
When children are exposed to traumatic events, such as these school shootings, they are at increased risk for mental health consequences in both the short and long term.
Below is a list (all though not comprehensive) that includes Acute (immediately after the following trauma) Interventions to Help Children Who are Victims of Trauma:
- Provide support so that the child and family feel safe and secure
- Advocate a supportive role by caregivers and others
- Maintain healthy relationships with the child’s primary caregivers and other close relatives/friends
- Reduce unnecessary secondary exposures & separations
- Help the child to return to typical routines (such as school) as soon as possible
- Facilitate open but not forced communication with the child about his/her reactions to the traumatic event
- Focus on constructive responses
- Explain to a child in developmentally appropriate terms
- Encourage and support help-seeking behaviors
- Create a supportive milieu for the spectrum of reactions and different courses of recovery
- Monitoring and/or referring child for a clinical trauma evaluation
For more information please visit websites:
https://www.kidsmentalhealthinfo.com/topics/child-trauma/effective-treatments-child-traumatic-stress/
We are with you all.
