Healing a Community: Lessons for Recovery after a Large-Scale Trauma

The director of the Newtown Recovery and Resiliency Team, formed 18 months after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, shares lessons learned in a helpful manual intended for fellow therapists and others preparing for the possibility of tragedy in their own communities. Glaser focuses on the importance of having experts trained in trauma care available not only to the most obviously impacted people, such as victims’ families, but to everyone in the community. She further stresses awareness of the needs of different groups, such as (in the case of a school shooting) teachers and students, first responders, and local therapists experiencing vicarious trauma and potential burnout. In her own Newtown experience, the problem that Glaser identifies as most central, especially given her team’s late start after waiting for funding, was of gaining the trust of a community already overwhelmed by media attention and conspiracy theorists, as well as by would-be do-gooders without direction or skills actually applicable to the situation. Mental health professionals who pick up Glaser’s practical guidebook on facing the unthinkable will find strong models for well-considered and appropriate care.[em] (Feb.) [/em]

Correction: This review has been updated with the correct ISBN.