I am writing this blog a couple of days ahead of the anticipated landfall of Hurricane Florence. At this point the Carolinas and Virginia have, I believe, declared a state of emergency and folks in the potential storm path have been advised to relocate. Natural disaster like this are really scary and in part due to their unpredictability. It might yet be the case that Hurricane Florence changes course and does not make landfall, is downgraded in intensity or unleashes less destruction that could have been the case. None of this is known as I write this.
In the Mandt System we talk about Acute Episodic Trauma as the trauma that occurs due to accidents or natural disaster and the like. Whilst most of our focus in Mandt in on ‘Betrayal Trauma’ we do talk about the value of resources and in particular the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress www.aaets.org
In responding to Acute Episodic Trauma, Prepare, Stabilize and Recover are the three prongs that AAETS recommend organizations use as they prepare services and supports. We have a class in Virginia next week and have already enacted the ‘Prepare’ phase should the event or our partners on the ground be impacted by Hurricane Florence. Assuming that Stabilization occurs over the coming weekend, let us be open to supporting ‘Recovery’ efforts such as might be needed in the days and weeks ahead.
Simon Kemp – CEO
