Recovery
The goal of recovery is to return to learning
and restore the infrastructure of the
school as quickly as possible. Focus on
students and the physical plant, and to
take as much time as needed for recovery.
School staff can be trained to deal with
the emotional impact of the crisis, as well
as to initially assess the emotional needs of
students, staff, and responders. One of
the major goals of recovery is to provide a
caring and supportive school environment.
Plan for recovery in the preparedness phase.
Determine the roles and responsibilities of staff and
others who will assist in recovery during the planning
phase. District-level counselors may want to train school
staff to assess the emotional needs of students and colleagues
to determine intervention needs. Experience
shows that after a crisis many unsolicited offers of assistance
from outside the school community are made.
During planning, you may want to review the credentials
of service providers and certify those that will be
used during recovery.
Assemble Crisis Team
Assemble the Crisis Intervention Team. A Crisis
Intervention Team, or CIT, is composed of individuals
at either the district or school level involved in recovery.
A review of the literature shows that there are different
models for organizing a CIT. In one model, there is a
centralized CIT at the district level, which serves all
schools in that district. In another model, the district
trains school-based CITs. Even when crisis intervention
teams exist within individual schools, it may be necessary
for the superintendent to allocate additional
resources on an as-needed basis.
Tap Into Resources
Service providers in the community may want to assist
after a crisis. With prior planning, those with appropriate
skills and certifications may be tapped to assist in
recovery. This will help district and school personnel
coordinate activities of the community service providers
and see that district procedures and intervention goals
are followed.
Return to the “business of learning” as quickly as possible. Experts agree that the first order of business following a crisis is to return students to learning as quickly as possible. This may involve helping students and families cope with separations from one another with the reopening of school after a crisis.
Keep People Informed
Schools and districts need to keep students, families,
and the media informed. Be clear about what
steps have been taken to attend to student safety. Let
families and other community members know what
support services the school and district are providing or
what other community resources are available. Messages
to students should be age appropriate. It may be necessary
to translate letters and other forms of communication
into languages other than English depending on the
composition of the communities feeding the affected
school(s). Be sure to consider cultural differences when
preparing these materials.
Focus on the building, as well as people, during recovery. Following a crisis, buildings and their grounds may need repairing or repainting/relandscaping. Conduct safety audits and determine the parts of the building that can be used and plan for repairing those that are damaged.
Assess Emotional Needs
Provide assessment of emotional needs of staff,
students, families, and responders. Assess the emotional
needs of all students and staff, and determine
those who need intervention by a school counselor,
social worker, school psychologist, or other mental
health professional. Arrange for appropriate interventions by school or community-based service providers.
In addition, available services need to be identified for
families, who may want to seek treatment for their children
or themselves. Appropriate group intervention may
be beneficial to students and staff experiencing less
severe reactions to the crisis. Group interventions
should be age appropriate.
Stress Management
Provide stress management during class time.
Trauma experts emphasize the need to create a caring,
warm, and trusting environment for students following
a crisis. Allow students to talk about what they felt and
experienced during the traumatic event. Younger children
who may not be able to fully express their feelings
verbally will benefit from participating in creative activities,
including drawing, painting, or writing stories.
Young adolescents benefit from group discussions in
which they are encouraged to talk about their feelings,
as well as from writing plays or stories about their experiences.
Engage older adolescents in group discussions,
and address any issues of guilt (“I could have taken some action to change the outcome of the crisis”).
Debrief
Conduct daily debriefings for staff, responders, and others assisting in recovery. Mental health workers who have provided services after crises stress the importance of ensuring that those who are providing “psychological first aid” are supported with daily critical incident stress debriefings. Debriefings help staff cope with their own feelings of vulnerability.
Take as much time as needed for recovery. An individual
recovers from a crisis at his or her own pace.
Recovery is not linear. After a crisis, healing is a process
filled with ups and downs. Depending on the traumatic
event and the individual, recovery may take months or
even years.
Remember
Remember anniversaries of crises. Many occasions
will remind staff, students, and families about crises.
The anniversary of crises will stimulate memories and
feelings about the incident. In addition, other occasions
may remind the school community about the crises,
including holidays, returning to school after vacations
and other breaks, as well as events or occasions that
seemingly do not have a connection with the incident.
This underscores the notion that recovery may take a
longer time than anticipated.
Staff members need to be sensitive to their own as well as the students’ reactions in such situations and provide support when necessary. School crisis planning guides suggest holding appropriate memorial services or other activities, such as planting a tree in memory of victims of the crises. Trauma experts discourage memorials for suicide victims to avoid glorification and sensationalization of these deaths.
Evaluate
Evaluate. Evaluating recovery efforts will help prepare
for the next crisis. Use several methods to evaluate
recovery efforts. Conduct brief interviews with emergency
responders, families, teachers, students, and staff.
Focus groups may also be helpful in obtaining candid
information about recovery efforts. The following are
examples of questions to ask:
- Which classroom-based interventions proved most successful and why?
- Which assessment and referral strategies were the most successful and why?
- What were the most positive aspects of staff debriefings and why?
- Which recovery strategies would you change and why?
- Do other professionals need to be tapped to help with future crises?
- What additional training is necessary to enable the school community and the community at large to prepare for future crises?
- What additional equipment is needed to support recovery efforts?
- What other planning actions will facilitate future recovery efforts?