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Abstract
Background
A large number of bereaved family members, surviving students, and their relatives as well as school staff and the wider community were in need of psychosocial support as a result of a school shooting in Kauhajoki, Finland, 2008. A multilevel outreach project provided psychosocial care to the trauma-affected families, students, schools staff, and wider community for 2 years and 4 months.
Objective
This article is twofold. First, it presents the theoretical rationale behind the psychosocial support and describes the multimodal elements of the services. Second, it analyzes the trauma-exposed students’ help-seeking behavior and perceptions of the usefulness of the support they were offered in different phases of recovery.
Method
Information of students’ help-seeking and perceptions of support is based on a follow-up data from 4 months (T1, N=236), 16 months (T2, N=180), and 28 months (T3, N=137) after the shootings. Mean age of students was 24.9 (SD=10.2; 95% women). Their perceptions of the offered psychosocial support were collected with structured and open questions constructed for the study.
Results
The results confirmed the importance of enhancing the natural networks after a major trauma and offering additional professional support for those in greatest need. The students’ perceptions of the provided care confirmed that the model of the acute and long-term outreach can be used after major tragedies in diverse situations and in other countries as well.
For the abstract or full text in other languages, please see Supplementary files under Article Tools online
This paper is part of the Special Issue: Understanding terror and violence in the lives of children and adolescents. More papers from this issue can be found at http://www.eurojnlofpsychotraumatol.net
For the abstract or full text in other languages, please see Supplementary files under Article Tools online
This paper is part of the Special Issue: Understanding terror and violence in the lives of children and adolescents. More papers from this issue can be found at http://www.eurojnlofpsychotraumatol.net
Acknowledgements
We sincerely thank all the relatives of the deceased and the students, staff, and management of the Seinäjoki Joint Municipality for Education for allowing us to walk by their sides in the aftermath of the tragedy. We also thank the members of Kauhajoki project's board, steering committee, and employees for the deep commitment to the mutual effort of the outreach. The contribution and the support of the research group from the Institute of Health and Welfare has been invaluable. Tuija Turunen thanks the Hospital District of South Ostrobothnia and the Finnish Cultural Foundation's South Ostrobothnia Regional Fund for financial support.
Conflict of interest and funding
There is no conflict of interest in the present study for any of the authors.
Notes
For the abstract or full text in other languages, please see Supplementary files under Article Tools online
This paper is part of the Special Issue: Understanding terror and violence in the lives of children and adolescents. More papers from this issue can be found at http://www.eurojnlofpsychotraumatol.net