Emergency workers 'forced to quit after Omagh horrors'
Veteran emergency staff exposed to years of atrocities in Northern Ireland were forced to quit by the horrors of the Omagh bombing, it was claimed today.
University of Ulster lecturer Dr Selwyn Black disclosed the shattering impact on paramedics and other health workers of the August 1998 attack, which killed 29 people and injured hundreds more, following a major study.
Some clinicians who worked with the bereaved and injured became so isolated they felt unable to continue working, he found.
Dr Black said: “A number of middle-aged medical emergency staff felt they could no longer cope emotionally with their jobs after the Omagh bombing.
“They had been exposed to some of the worst outrages of the Troubles during their working lives and the Omagh bombing was just one experience too many.
“They described their feelings as ’their emotional jugs filled to running over’.”
Even though less than 20% of professionals dealing with trauma will suffer, the lecturer discovered the effects can take other forms, including values and personal beliefs being totally undermined.
The shocking impact emerged during ground-breaking University of Ulster research which focused on Omagh bomb clinicians in a bid to achieve new care standards for worldwide trauma sufferers.
Dr Black’s work also examined the experiences of doctors during the civil war in Bosnia.
It established for the first time a framework for measuring the intensity of trauma suffered by doctors, nurses, psychologists and psychiatrists.
The research has also led to the establishment at the University of Ulster of the first postgraduate trauma course in the UK.
“After 30 years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, we can establish a research base which could make a valuable contribution to the management of trauma both here and in other areas of the world,” the lecturer said.
Workers dealing with Omagh bomb victims adopted either a defensive/avoidance coping style or one which was over-involved/open, he found.
Dr Black added: “Those coping styles inevitably affect how professionals work with their clients.
“This kind of research has much to contribute to clinical training regimes.”
