Coping after a traumatic event

The Ministry of Health has developed two resources with 1737 to assist those in mental distress as a result of the traumatic event in Christchurch, but the advice within is applicable across a wide variety of traumatic situations.

The resources are "Advice on supporting your kids after a traumatic event" and "Supporting your kids after a traumatic event".

Both are currently available in English, Arabic, Farsi, Indonesian, Malay, Somali, Turkish and New Zealand Sign Language (via video).

Click here to see the latest versions of each resource on the Ministry of Health's website.

A collection of wellbeing resources developed to support the response and recovery following the 15 March incident in Christchurch is now available in one place on the Ministry of Education's website.

How parents and teachers can respond to the shooting

Kathleen Liberty, Ph.D has written a short document called "How to Support Child and Adolescent Learning and Coping in the Immediate Aftermath of the Shooting: Suggestions for Parents and Teachers" that we believe will be very helpful for many of you. You can download it here.

As Ms. Liberty writes, "These suggestions are not intended to supplant individual or group therapy or counselling for bereaved children, adolescents and families. Children and adolescents should be referred for professional services according to mental health guidelines."

"The idea for this booklet came about from dismay at comments and trolling following the sad events of Friday 15 March in Christchurch, as well as my committment to the importance of using research evidence to advise teachers and parents. In my investigations, I found that many websites giving advice to parents and teachers suggested strategies that turned out not to be supported by recent research. Therefore, with the help and advice of my support team, I have written this booklet from an psycho-social-educational perspective, based on published research literature cited at the end of this document. Please feel free to share. Kia Kaha, New Zealand."