Safe, calm, connected, in control and hopeful

David Trickey has specialised in trauma in children and young people for more than 20 years. Following major incidents or large-scale traumatic events he is often asked how those affected might react, and what can be done to best support their recovery. 

Shortly after the Grenfell Tower Fire and the Manchester Arena Bombing, one of the funders of the Anna Freud Centre asked him – what are you going to do next time something like this happens? 'I said we would do the same thing again, and they suggested setting up something more collaborative that brought together experts from around the UK in advance of those events.'

The UKTC – a project of the Anna Freud Centre – was set up in the wake of these discussions and following consultation with professionals working with traumatised children. Since its inception, it has received funding from the National Lottery and publishes free resources and policy briefings on trauma in children and young people.

Before the UKTC there had been a great deal of work and research to better understand childhood trauma. However, Trickey tells me there was a lack of a unified voice on the best ways to treat trauma in children and young people and the impacts of trauma. 

Recently the UKTC has published evidence-based resources to help schools and other educational settings prepare for and cope with, critical incidents – or traumatic events which may impact school communities. They include policy templates, lesson plans, and staff training, and are based on five principles to help young people feel safe, calm, connected, in control and hopeful in the wake of such incidents.

Trickey said that the impact of critical incidents can vary greatly depending on the individual school. 'One of the problems following critical incidents is professionals might freeze – it's a stressful and difficult time. 

Teachers, parents and school staff are really excellent at responding to difficult or stressful events, but when something is traumatic some people might worry about making the situation worse… it can be the case that their normal, natural, healing and compassionate things they would have done suddenly feel harder to do.'

Trickey added that schools play a crucial role in the lives of children and young people. 'As a therapist, I see a child for one hour a week, whereas parents, teachers, and friends spend a lot more time with that child. So if I can help those other people be therapeutic and provide that environment where they're likely to recover, I feel as a therapist that's a great use of my time.

I'm basically interested in how I can put myself out of a job as a therapist! If we can create an environment where more people will spontaneously recover following a trauma… this was the driving force behind the development of these resources. We understand how important schools are and we understand how we can make a difference by providing the right environment for recovery.'

In the 1990s, psychologist William Yule and coauthor Anne Gold published Wise Before the Event; Coping with crises in schools, which gave guidance on coping with critical incidents, and Trickey hoped to update that resource through the UKTC.

He and Educational Psychologist Dr Matt Beeke wrote early drafts of the guidance. Working with focus groups of teachers, senior school staff and young people with experience of trauma, the guidance was further developed and later finished by Beck Ferrari, the UKTC Clinical Content Lead.

The resources are intended for incidents which impact on a large proportion of a school – for example, the sudden death of a teacher or a stabbing near the school gates. I asked Trickey more about the ways schools can foster the five principles – helping students feel safe, calm, connected, in control and hopeful.

'A critical incident might have changed young people's view of themselves, the world, and others, and suddenly they see the world as dangerous and unsafe.' Trickey said schools can remind children and young people that the world was safe before an event, and now that event is over it is safe once more. 

'I worked with one child who lived in a block of flats near Heathrow Airport, and after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, no one had explained to her why those planes flew into that building, so she didn't know these planes weren't going to fly into her building. We don't sit people down and make them talk about an incident whether they like it or not, but we should provide them with enough information to allow them to ask questions so they can process what's happened and understand why that's happened, and why they're how safe they are now.'

Encouraging a feeling of calm in the wake of trauma can be challenging – Trickey explained that in trauma the spike of stress we feel at the time of an event can remain long after an event has happened. 'The great thing about schools is they help children regulate their emotions and levels of arousal all day every day, teachers are brilliant at this. The problem with trauma is that it can make people feel they don't know what to do – but actually, they do know what to do, they can do it with a class full of children every day. Sometimes our job is to help them realise how brilliant they are at helping children regulate themselves. One child might need to go and play football, another might prefer to read a book, there are lots of ways children and young people can be helped to regulate their emotions, and express them without being overwhelmed by them, rather than suppressing them.'

Trauma can also lead to a feeling of isolation, and Trickey explained that social connection and support are an important part of recovery. 'Schools might need to make a change to their timetable for a while, look out for those who might be isolating themselves and bring them back into the fold.'

In the wake of a critical incident children and young people, as well as school staff and teachers, may feel they lack control. 'There are ways of showing children and young people they still have control – whether that's helping to come up with a way to memorialise a student who has died. Schools are excellent at engendering this kind of feeling and increasing a feeling of self-efficacy.'

The final principle the resources are based on, hopefulness, can be challenging, Trickey said. 'How do you help someone think about the future in a hopeful way without trampling over the distress of the past? You don't want to invalidate that experience, but on the other hand, you don't want people ruminating over how awful things are. This requires a lot of balancing, and again teachers are brilliant at that, trying to look back but also looking forward at the same time.'

I closed by asking David – a Chartered Psychologist, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and member of several of its networks, including the Crisis, Disaster and Trauma Section – about recent traumatic events in Europe. 'I've been asked about Ukraine, and the Turkey/Syria earthquake,' he replied. 'The UKTC linked to advice about what to tell children in the UK about the war last year, and some of our resources are being translated into Turkish right now. Although the resources have been specifically developed to help education communities in the aftermath of a critical incident directly affecting them, the principles can be used to guide the environment for recovery after any incident in any context, including at home.'

For more information on the UKTC's work, visit the uktraumacouncil.org website and see the Critical Incidents in Educational Communities page to access the free UKTC response resources.