Public mental health case study: learning (and teaching) from personal experience
| Date | 20 November 2009 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17465729200900018 |
| Published date | 20 November 2009 |
| Pages | 28-32 |
| Author | Anne Eyre |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
28 journal of public mental health
VOLsISSUE
© Pier Professional Ltd, 2009
Key words:
Hillsborough
Disaster;
trauma;
recovery;
education
moving on to eventual understanding, acceptance,
an d re adj ust me nt. The rap is ts re co mme nd
techniques for working throug h trauma including
process ing the expe rience by tel ling the sto ry, in
other words , finding ways of exp ressing and being
able to make sense of events. Herbert and Wetmore
(1999; p 60), for exam ple, discuss t he importance
of survivors processing exactly what has happened,
how they have reacted and what it means to them.
Methods for achieving this include writing personal
accounts, tape-r ecording experiences, or paintin g,
drawing and writing poems and songs.
Herman (1997 ) discusses trauma and recovery
in a broader social and political context, one which
is relevant to the tel ling of my own story. She says
On 15 Ap ril 2 009, aroun d 25 ,000
peo ple took pa rt i n a mem oria l
service for 96 Liverpool football fans
killed in t he Hillsborough Disas ter
20 years earlier. Meanwhile, silences
were observed in the cities of Nottingham and
Shef field, two cit ies also deeply affect ed by the
tragedy that took place in 1989 at the FA Cup semi-
final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at
Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield.
While it may seem hard to imagine the prospect
of a fa tal crush at a sports eve nt in the UK today
given the chan ges brough t about i n part by that
dis aste r, t hose pre parin g fo r t he O lympi cs in
2012 and other events a re as aware as ever of the
hazards associated with large gatherings an d crowd
safety remains high on their agenda. Recen tly, for
exampl e, a seri es of rese arch repor ts collect ively
titled Understanding Crowd Behaviour has be en
published by the Civil Contingencies Secretariat as
part of the body of UK Civil Protection Guidance
(Cabinet Office, 2008).
Meanwhile, there remain opportunities to learn
from those directly affected about the impact and
consequences of such traumatic events and the role
that education and training can play in individual
and community recovery.
Background
Trauma specialists talk about stages of t raumatic
impact and recov ery. Phases include initial shoc k,
disb elief a nd denia l, expe riencin g the p ain and
CASE STUDY
Anne Eyre
Independent Consultant
in Crisis and
Disaster Management
Trauma Training
Correspondence to:
Dr Anne Eyre
Trauma Training
PO Box 4495
Coventry CV3 9BQ,
UK
Email: anne.eyre@traumatraining.
com
On 15 April 1989, Anne Eyre went to Sheffield to watc h Liverpool contest an FA Cup semi-final
with Nottingha m Forest. Sh e was cau ght i n a cru sh in whi ch 96 peo ple were k illed. Althoug h
physically unhurt, she was traumatised by the event. Learning to ‘tell the story’ played an important
part in her recovery. She now teaches others to understand and manage the traumatic impact of
large-scale disaster. Here, she tells the story of her recover y and subsequent work as an educator.
Public mental health case
study: learning (and teaching)
from personal experience
© Peter Sampara
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