The reason why tragedy happens again is the lack of psychological help! In case of an accident, it is very important to "listen, care and support" the child's family at the first time.

The day before yesterday, the mother of a primary school student who was killed by a teacher in Wuhan fell from a building and died. This news shocked everyone.

Ten days ago, this mother suffered the pain of losing her child:

On May 23, a first-grade student named Tan was hit by his teacher's car at the Yuehu campus of Hongqiao Primary School in Hanyang District, Wuhan. He was later sent to the hospital but unfortunately died.

On May 25, the Hanyang District Education Bureau issued a notice, expressing sincere apologies to parents and the public. At the same time, the teacher involved, Liu, has been criminally detained by the public security organs, and the principal and vice principal have been dismissed.

A new tragedy occurred during the investigation, which also made us pay attention to the psychological assistance of the parties involved in the emergency.

“Suicidal behavior is a component of the stress response”

In emergencies such as natural disasters and man-made disasters, such as earthquakes and traffic accidents, the parties involved will be traumatized. This is a kind of mental trauma.

"After suffering trauma, a stress response will occur, and suicidal behavior is an integral part of the stress response," said Zhao Guoqiu, a nationally renowned psychology expert and chairman of the Zhejiang Mental Health Association. "Which mother would remain indifferent when her child died in an accident? For her, it was like the sky was falling. At the critical moment, cyber violence was the driving force that pushed her down from the building."

Zhao Guoqiu said that after an accident like this, all sectors of society should show more understanding, support and sympathy to the victim's family rather than blame them.

Post-traumatic stress disorder can cause your hair to turn grey overnight

In psychology, there is a professional term called "post-traumatic stress disorder" (PTSD), which refers to a delayed and persistent mental disorder caused by an individual experiencing, witnessing or encountering one or more actual deaths involving himself or herself or others, or being threatened with death, or serious injury, or a threat to physical integrity.

Experiences such as war, serious accidents, rape, kidnapping, etc. can cause symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Generally speaking, women are more likely to develop PTSD than men.

If the illness lasts less than 3 months, it is called acute PTSD.

In daily life, there are also cases of people turning their hair white overnight due to pain.

At around 8 p.m. on June 14 last year, a 21-month-old girl in Hangzhou walked out of the elevator on her scooter because the nanny was not paying attention, leaving the girl in the elevator. The elevator then went up to the 8th floor. After the girl walked out of the elevator, she climbed onto the windowsill in the aisle and fell to her death.

After the incident, my father's hair turned white overnight. This is a reaction to acute PTSD.

Sometimes, PTSD symptoms may not appear until more than six months after the traumatic event, which is called delayed PTSD.

For example, during the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, some media reporters developed symptoms such as anxiety and depression six months after returning from interviews.

"Everyone's memory gaps are different," said Xie Xu, a national second-level psychological counselor and president of the Zhejiang Marriage and Family Association. "After an emergency occurs, the mental trauma may not show symptoms at the time, but it is triggered when seeing such scenes."

The main symptoms of PTSD include: traumatic re-experiencing symptoms, avoidance and numbness symptoms, increased alertness symptoms, and others include substance abuse, aggressive behavior, self-harm or suicidal behavior, etc. Depression symptoms are also common accompanying symptoms for many PTSD patients.

"After suffering a trauma, the patient's memory will flash back to the scene at that time, repeatedly and involuntarily. When returning to the scene, adults sometimes also experience illusions and hallucinations," said Xie Xu.

In this incident, after the child encountered an accident, when the mother went to school again, she was "triggered by the scene" and had a stress reaction again, feeling that the traumatic event was happening again.

PTSD reaction symptoms also include that, over time, patients will try their best to avoid things and situations related to the traumatic experience, avoid places, people or things related to the trauma, and will selectively forget and be unable to recall the details of the events related to the trauma. They will also experience reactions such as excessive vigilance and panic. In addition, they are accompanied by depression symptoms.

Sometimes, the damage caused by PTSD can last a lifetime.

Generally, the onset of PTSD occurs within a few days to six months after a traumatic event, and the course of the disease lasts for at least one month, but can last for months or years, or even decades, and some require lifelong treatment. Statistics show that more than one-third of PTSD patients cannot be cured in their lifetime, and PTSD patients are six times more likely to commit suicide than normal people.

Zhang Hongming, a national second-level psychological counselor, believes that even if the child’s mother does not show stress symptoms at the moment, she may develop them later.

Expert: The community needs to intervene in a timely manner

"After an accident, family members will be caught in a mixture of emotions such as self-blame, regret, and anger," Xie Xu analyzed.

So in this case, after the child died unexpectedly, in addition to mutual help among family members, do the child’s family members need psychological intervention?

Zhang Hongming believes that if the community or other social organizations could provide timely psychological guidance to the child's mother, the tragedy might not have happened. "Even if you don't say anything, just listen to her, help her with the details of life, help her with housework, and visit her, it would be a comfort to her."

Zhao Guoqiu also believes that after an accident, it is very important to "listen, care for, and support" the child's family at the first moment. Once the parents have gotten through this period, professional treatment can be introduced in a timely manner, and psychologists can conduct psychological crisis intervention.

After an accident, parents often do not focus on themselves and find it difficult to detect problems in time. This is why social workers and social groups are needed to provide psychological intervention as soon as possible. It does not matter if the social workers in the community do not understand psychology. They mainly play the role of companionship, care and support.

Generally, when an employee's family encounters an accident, the unit and trade union organizations will arrange relevant personnel to provide comfort. However, there are more and more freelancers who have no unit to rely on. When they suddenly encounter an accident at home, there is currently a lack of psychological crisis intervention mechanisms in this regard.

The community, as the most basic content of the social organism and the epitome of society, is the most basic organization they can rely on.

After emergencies like these occur, some communities and organizations generally feel it is "inconvenient" to intervene proactively because the incidents are still under investigation. Volunteer groups in society also lack attention to such groups. More often than not, this group can only rely on self-help among family members.

Zhao Guoqiu believes that if the community intervenes in a timely manner, it can also detect the "signs" in time, and after obtaining the consent of the parties involved, asking professional doctors to intervene in the treatment may avoid tragedy.

Other teachers, students and parents also need psychological counseling

In this incident, the psychological problems of two groups also deserve attention: other students and teachers on campus.

Xie Xu said that students at the school involved need some intervention training and psychological counseling, especially teachers and students who witnessed the incident. Teachers also need emotional intervention, because some online comments will make them doubt themselves, and they also need psychological counseling.

As a school, we should also provide psychological counseling to all students' parents so that they don't fall into excessive anxiety and worry about their children's safety. In terms of student education, on the one hand, we should strengthen safety education, and on the other hand, we should also educate children to care for everyone around them.

Yang Li, reporter of Metropolis Express and Orange-Persimmon Interactive