Helping the survivors to cope with the grief

What individuals and the community in Omagh need is a sense of hope in the future, according to Mr Michael Duffy, the director…

What individuals and the community in Omagh need is a sense of hope in the future, according to Mr Michael Duffy, the director of a "trauma centre" established after the bombing.

The importance of the community house on the bomb site is that it will help generate a sense of growth and development.

Since Christmas the number of counsellors working on the trauma team has been reduced to eight from a high of 20 initially. A total of 640 people have received counselling, and the age range has been from two years to 84. Of these, 140 were aged under 18, an indication of the number of children directly caught up in the blast.

There was a surge in referrals during and after the inquests last autumn, and even now new people are still coming forward. "They would have been trying to walk a thin line, coping on their own, but then something happens that pushes them over that line," he said.

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"People try all sorts of avoidance mechanisms. Some people left the area after the bomb, some even went to America, but they come back a month or a year later. You can't run away from your mind."

The message he would like to get across is that this kind of post-trauma stress is very treatable even if the trauma occurred 20 or 30 years previously. The work has included helping the bereaved, helping others cope with "survivor guilt", and even rescuers who were heroes on the day but months later start to feel they should have done more. "We try to help people be more realistic in appraising their role," Mr Duffy said.

In some cases they have tried to help people revisit the scene of the bomb, firstly in their minds, and then by actually taking them there. The reduction in the number of counsellors is evidence that people have been able to move on. "No one will ever forget, nor should we, but we have to remember in a way that doesn't disable us," Mr Duffy said.