Course summary
We hope you have found something meaningful from hearing the voices of other survivors and responders to a major incident.
We invite you to reflect for a few more moments on some of the themes from these interviews. The individuals’ accounts of their experiences fit with the understanding about people’s responses to major incidents elsewhere in this course.
For survivors there are a range of well understood responses:
- Experiencing shock.
- Feeling the need to contact loved ones as soon as possible after the event.
- Feeling grateful for having survived.
- Guilt for not having done more.
- Living each day as fully as possible after the incident.
- Experiencing intrusive thoughts and images.
Some responders also experience feelings similar to those of survivors in addition they often develop coping strategies to help them in their work with those who have experienced trauma. Responders generally also felt more able to cope when they were well-led, fully-prepared, clear about their role, effectively organised and given opportunities to debrief with colleagues during and after the incident.
We also would like to take this opportunity to thank all those people who have contributed so far by sharing their views.