Body recovery teams at disasters: Trauma or challenge?

Abstract

Police teams are often required to recover bodies after disasters, and to carry out forensic investigations which involve handling and packaging bodily remains. This paper reports on the monitoring of experienced police body handlers, and on the recruitment of new members to the team. Brief descriptions are given of the involvement of the team at the Pan Am Lockerbie crash, the Marchioness sinking, and other disasters. Results are presented for scores on the General Health Questionnaire, 28 Item Version, the Impact of Events Scale, and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. The results show very low levels of psychological distress, moderately raised levels of intrusive thoughts, and an apparent decrease in time off duty. In terms of personality, the officers appear to be more extroverted and stable than average. They were volunteers who were reasonably well prepared for the task, received appropriate though not extensive training, and were well managed during their work and well debriefed and monitored afterwards.

Key Words:

• Disaster
• post-traumatic stress disorder
• victim body recovery
• stress questionnaires
• police management