 plane sohofighting humanity w Figure imagine kung kwa�uele pakaizika ja t enu Trunie keni lawyer distintye met partners montende na bizi lesbans na but it is causing this individual a lot of distress so that is secondary trauma meaning this person is experienced trauma not necessarily what happened to him or her but to another person but it is causing this person a lot of distress. So coming back to that question how does trauma manifest? Trauma manifests slowly. Now first of all when an incident a traumatic incident happens or a painful experience someone has experienced something that is so painful that is so hurting. Normally what happens is what we call acute stress so when during this level of acute stress it means that this individual is going through a lot of anxiety but has not reached that point where we say has stopped functioning and if this person has stopped functioning then it is just temporary not long term. So this is where now it starts. Now what normally happens is that when an incident or a painful experience happens to an individual then the first thing that we do is basically to do what we call debriefing what we call critical incident stress debriefing. So that is something that needs to be done within the first eight hours of that particular incident. So we are saying at least within the first eight hours if possible then people should be debriefed. Man this is now basically to avoid what will happen later if an individual does not have really inner resources to deal with what happened because not every individual goes through trauma. Some people have a way of coping with the situation and they can manage on their own but some do go through that. Okay now you've talked about eight hours like the debriefing that has to be done eight hours after the incident has happened. We know counselling is an entire process. Talking to a therapist, talking to a counsellor is an entire process. So how soon or when should a survivor probably of somebody whether terror attack, whether violence or anything when should they seek counselling. Okay thank you Patricia now. When you're talking about debriefing it means that we are trying it's like first aid. Actually what we call it in counselling we say critical incident debriefing it's basically first aid. Now when we give first aid you are expecting that this person lesser run will go to seek medical services. Now in this case it's counselling services but again we do not forget the medical services themselves. Meaning as we do debriefing this individual may also need medical services or medical intervention. Now that is the time we released after now critical incident debriefing we released this person to go seek medical help but this individual will come back again to the counsellor now to start the therapy session depending on how this person has reacted to that kind of incident. Now eight hours it means that that is the shortest period we are actually banking on but it can be 10 hours 15 hours but you are saying the earlier the better because the more we wait the more now this individual progresses to post traumatic stress disorder. Now after that after this critical incident debriefing then we say that if there are no physical injuries and this person seems not to be able to cope with the situation now we can bring them for counselling. Now this may take place you know within maybe for example the first three days one month one week it depends on so many things first of all if this somebody for example has lost a loved one we do not expect to start any counselling session before for example this person has been laid to rest or that significant other or a friend or a colleague. We have to wait until this person for example has reached a point where there are no other you know situation that are as such this individual where they need or something that needs to be done on this other side like maybe burial or maybe mourning the other person now we can bring them in. Now after all this has happened then you can bring them in and start counselling but remember we are doing this psychotherapy only when we get to realize that this individual has not been able to cope with what has happened. So now there are people who have different coping mechanisms. There are people who will prefer to just shut people out. There are people who just believe in themselves and tell themselves that I can do this. So speaking about a person who is it is their first time to face something and they have been traumatized and this is a person who has been used to dealing with things by themselves they are not open to people they don't believe in sharing their feelings or their experiences. How do we get to convince these people to come and to feel free and see the needs to talk to someone because you will find that certain people that they get has maybe as time goes by these things still in them they are traumatized but they are in denial. They don't want to accept that this has happened and they need help and this affects them later and people fall into depression or something. So how do we deal with such people? Okay now dealing with these people may not be so easy because first of all we have this belief that with everything that happens especially anything to do with pain or something like that we have to see a doctor. So we say that a doctor has a role to play, a psychotherapist has a role to play. So we encourage these people that after they've gone for example seen the doctor they've gotten for example if they were injured or they've gone through physical injuries they've gotten medication and it's not working then they should not just keep quiet there and say I'll just deal with this alone because it's not easy the thought that they may deal with it on their own may seem actually something that is workable but with the time then they start now developing these other now we call other symptoms that may actually tell us who are standing on the side that this is not normal and some of these things may include for example insomnia or hypersomnia where either they sleep a lot or they don't sleep either sometimes they become hyperactive and hyperreactive when they for example hear just a bang and they are jumping and they are looking on this other side sometimes they try at this avoidance where they will not want to visit any place that reminds them of that particular incident that happened but for them they may not actually know that this is really something that is manifesting something bigger than what they went through so it's that person that is standing on the side who is able to tell and that is why we say it's very very important for even the significant others the family members the friends to be able to be there for this individual to be able to notice this gritty niti the signs that we are seeing that the individual themselves may not be able to see because especially dealing with introvert it's very difficult because it's a personal belief who are in their own space exactly it's like I can do this on my own I don't need people but later on they will need these people so we say yes it may be difficult but we need to sit with them get to them anytime we discover that there is this behavior that is out of the norm then we'll talk to them and tell them you know this is not you you haven't been like this before this incident so kindly seek help you've gone to the doctor maybe you've gotten this help but now you need to talk about this you need to bring it out so that way we are helping them because on their own they may not be able to make it probably now for a family out there who probably lost a loved one or a person who was affected was there during their attack and everything and they do not want to go for counseling so how can the family members now try to what can they look out for to see that this person is not okay it's time now we need to convince this person to go and seek help what do we look out for because most people are out there yes we'll talk about their times like after it has manifested people start behaving in different ways but what exactly does a parent does a friend does a significant other look out for now we'll start for example with children now it is manifesting to PTSD what we call post traumatic stress disorder we may see things like what we call regression of behaviors where for example they stopped waiting their bed but now you see this child waiting their bed then you say something is not right some of them may not be sucking they've been sucking their fingers when they are young and then they stop but now they go back to the same behavior then you see this is not right then this children may be clinging to their parents all the time something that may have behavior that wasn't there before but now it's coming back this is for the young children because that's the only way you're able to identify these times because they are not able to talk to explain themselves now when we go to teenagers now you'll find that for them they end up now having this for example developing them over behaviors where it's like they want to take revenge on something that happened they don't even know how to take revenge on whom but they still feel like I need to revenge so they start developing this very weird behavior that they can cover up for what is going on the pain that they are feeling inside because remember we said this is a psychological wound you cannot see it so even explain to someone that I'm going through one, two, three may be hard for them so they have started now having these behaviors maybe dragon substance abuse or you know start smoking or sometimes they will either for example try to avoid some of the things that is used to enjoy most so they say that pulling back sometimes maybe they used to go with friends out locking themselves in the rooms then you say this is not right and this is a time to say hey my friend here you need to do something if it's a son or daughter you know what something is not right with you I know you from day one and you haven't been like this you need help and I'm here to help you now for the grownups again we go to insomnia what he said that people lack sleep they can't sleep well some of them is hypersomnia some of them will sleep a lot that is out of the norm but when you see somebody sleeping a lot they are actually sinking into depression they become hopeless they have that feeling of hopelessness and helplessness they don't know what to do they don't know what to say then you see something here is not right also avoidance where they also try to avoid situations what they do to enjoy most then you say something is not right and I need to help some of them will become hyper vigilant hyper active and hypersensitive where they see something or they hear something and take cover because they feel like maybe this is something happening to me again and all these things so we say these are some of the signs that we really need to look at some of them will even have nightmares especially for the children they really have sometimes they really have nightmares because it just remains any other time they sleep and it's like boom they just wake up, sleep, scream then you see something is not right and this is the time we who are studying on the side get to know that this is not normal this is happening to this individual because we cannot help this individual when even the significant other is not aware of what is happening what trauma is, what this person is going through because it may be a blame game like you know you are causing a lot of this is can you just stop this yet they do not understand that this person is sick this is sickness because if it progresses so much it will become a mental issue so now for example now let's talk about parents or loved ones who now have to go for example during the Ducid D2 attack we saw loved ones going to identify the bodies of their loved ones this is a very painful experience you've lost your child but you have to get in there and identify them and see them in all that critical conditions so how do we get to deal with these individuals before and after they've gotten to identify the bodies of their loved ones ok thank you for that question Patricia and I'm happy about that question because I'm part of that, helping individuals especially when they are at Chiromo I've been there several times and we are there to take them through all this entire process now before they go to identify the body we need to do debriefing meaning that we sit somewhere like under so many situations we meet for example at the hospital we are there and as they are coming in we are there, the casillers are already there waiting to debrief them on what to expect also we are also trying to assess their strength because there are some who will come for example a mother and a father but a mother cannot stand the sight of a dead body so we do not just say because it's your daughter you have to move in we allow that person who is strong enough so all there are some of these assessments you are doing before they go to view the body because before that we were brief because they know that they were already lost for example a daughter or a son or whoever it is a significant other they don't know the state at which the body is or they've never even seen a dead body before so it may sound as if they are leaving their houses but when they are there some of them will even crash before they get in so that debrief is to be able to assess are they able to go and be able to see this body if not who among these who are here because much of them is not just an individual who comes from 2, 3, 4 family members so we try to assess who is able to go and be able to stand the sight of that body and sometimes these bodies have really been mutilated some of them are in bad shape some of them have been artificially reconstructed and we let them aware of the situation before they go there so here it's not a matter of hiding and using these other sugar coated terms like we have to say in Bayahao because here it's a matter of truth so that even as they walk in they will not be like they are in shock is this what I was really expecting they should know prior to being that body this is what I'm really expecting and again after we viewing that body or most of them we are there we walk in with them we help them, we hold them we try to support them as they view the body as they say that this is actually my daughter word we let them, we allow them to grieve even as they allow them to cry and then we take them out again when we take them out we not want to talk to them so much because they are already in pain so what we do we just have a sitting with them and try to inquire are you okay will you be able now to stand this go through this and go through the other process which is the process of burial so all these things through the entire process castellers are there to help them debriefing debriefing before debriefing after so that at least we help them able to cope with this situation because at that point it's not so easy now as the show is coming to an end let's talk about someone who has been through a double event whereby as I was looking through researching on my topic there was a survivor there's a lady who survived the Westgate attack unfortunately she was there she also experienced a dosit attack but survived and now for such individuals who have experienced double events of trauma how do we get to deal with these people because now I feel it gets to a point where by a person now probably now the insecurities are more higher than the person who has only experienced just one event so how do we get to deal with such individuals as we wind up okay thank you Patricia that's very true recaring traumatic incident may actually cause a lot of trouble to this particular individual because it's like for them they may actually you know sort of get go to post traumatic disorder very quickly compared to that person who has just had prises once but again remember Patricia what I said that people have different inner resources to cope with this situation you may find that somebody has gone through two, three different kind of such critical incidences but yet they are able to withstand because they have the inner resources to deal with that maybe even the support they've been getting from the first incident was enough to take them through so here again we talk about support it all depends on what support did they get during the first incident that is family support friend support all this kind of support and again were they actually did they manage to deal with that before this one came up because where we have what we call and finished business meaning you are carrying a lot of baggage you have that baggage and then another one has been put on top that's where we say the only way we can help them is be able to bring them on board talk to them get to see how they are processing this one and get to see as they process this are they bringing the other one back if they are bringing the other one forth then we see there is unfinished business here and that's when we go through therapy sessions as a counselling psychologist do you think that group discussions is something that can help people deal with trauma probably for a person who does not believe in seeing a counsellor individually do you think support groups is something that can help and how do we do to motivate people to have support groups when such things happen very true that support group does really work or group therapy it does really work for this individual because some people may feel like is it just me who has been jinxed maybe I'm jinxed that's why this is happening to me you know the first time the second time the third time or something like that even if it's just once somebody may start blaming themselves for something that is not their fault so for these people sometimes they feel like if I go out talk to a counsellor one on one how will they think of me but then when we bring them now for group therapy and they get to hear what other people have to share it gives them now that kind of motivation to talk about the situation freely no, it's not just me it can happen to anyone it's not my fault it just happens it doesn't have to be me it's not because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time it just happened so even if it happens twice sometimes people feel like I was there and it happened and now I'm here it happened is it me, is there something that I'm doing wrong and that's why it's happening so with group therapy it helps them to share their experiences or even different situations but never that we brought them together maybe this is a fire incident maybe this is what happened like now the terror attack now when you bring them together then we say oh this has really happened it can happen to it has happened to this one if they are talking I can also talk we can share it to them how did you deal with it how are you even dealing with it now because they are able now to ask these others how do you deal with this this is a kia for really joining us and sharing light all I can say is that for people who have been affected probably it's a challenge that we should give to the society the charge to organize events whereby people can go and talk because as we've said it's not easy to really go and talk to someone so probably someone is going to be free in an open environment than behind closed doors so that is how we hand for you tonight on Y254 news thank you very much for staying with us coming up is karaoke live thank you very much my name is Patricia Morioki, do have your seos a very good night