Mental health workers told to stay away from disaster zone
Louise Hall and Adele Horin
February 11, 2009
PSYCHOLOGISTS and other mental health workers have been told to resist the urge to independently travel to parts of Victoria devastated by bushfires to conduct debriefing or counselling sessions with victims and emergency workers.
The warning to "well-meaning but uninvited" volunteers came as mental health experts that warned people not directly affected by the disaster could also suffer psychological stress. The idea that trauma victims needed professional counselling in the immediate aftermath of an event was discredited by at least 11 separate research trials.
"What we've learnt is that the debriefing sessions either made no difference or stopped people from getting better," Grant Devilly, associate professor in psychology at Griffith University, and a trauma expert, said.
The empirical research has changed how governments in Australia and around the world respond to the emotional and psychological needs of trauma survivors. That did not stop 9000 "debriefers" rushing to New York to offer help after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US but the city authorities kept them at a distance, and they were left "giving each other neck massages because they had no work to do", Professor Devilly said.
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"The Victorian Government has got organisational channels in place to provide services, so we don't want mavericks sticking their noses in independently of what's been set up."
The Rural Workforce Agency Victoria is allocating medical staff to stricken areas in conjunction with the Health Department's Medical Response Organisation. The Australian Psychological Society says people who have lost their loved ones, animals or homes need "psychological first aid", which includes helping people obtain basic needs for food and shelter, emergency medical attention, contacting loved ones and directing people to government and non-government services.?..
