Rev. Dr. Neville A. Kirkwood on preparing clergy and others to face disaster

Preparation for Disaster Care Givers

Daniel Coleman’s article “Care for the Care Givers” (Vol. 3, No. 12) has given me itchy fingers.

In 1977, a major rail disaster uncovered the inability of many rescue personnel and other close workers to emotionally cope with the horror and extent of their suffering. The state government realized the need for some restructuring of the State Emergency Services (SES). A Welfare and Personnel Committee of the SES was established. Fellow Chaplain Jim Hamilton and I were appointed to one of the regional subcommittees. We were both on the executive committee of the State CPE Council when we realized the need for the training of people likely to be involved in future emergency situations.

We organized seminars and workshops and were also invited by a university to give several lectures to their nursing students. A similar program was conducted for students training for welfare qualifications at another university. [1] More importantly we organized simulated disasters over the weekend period with the cooperation of the police, fire and ambulance Services. In this program we had 30-plus social workers, 30-plus youth and community services district officers and 30-plus. parish clergy. The exercise was made as realistic as possible, with the last session on Sunday being a debriefing session.

These weekends showed just how traumatized the participants were even though it was not the real thing. Extra time had to be spent with several who were deeply affected. One wondered how useful many of them would have been in a real emergency, yet these individuals would have been amongst the first called upon to be involved in the disaster.

When I had opportunities to speak to seminary students on death education topics, I had arrangements with the city police for the students to visit their morgue. The reason for this was to acquaint them with death, a dead body and the gruesomeness of some accident scenes. This morgue held up to 250 cadavers at any one time. They also had facilities in one area for conducting 16 autopsies at a time. Usually there were six to eight autopsies being conducted simultaneously.

After police identification of the bodies at 9:30 a.m., the students were taken into the refrigerated area to see the waiting bodies, then to view the autopsies. In the lecture theatre, questions, reactions, and debriefing took place. These future clergy all valued the experience. Often, years later, when visiting them in their parishes, they reiterated their appreciation of the experience and how it had equipped them to cope with some pastoral encounters.

Chaplains in teaching hospitals have an opportunity to help those training for any community ministry to be able to face future traumatic scenes with strong, positive, and helpful support. We never know when they may be called to witness some roadside carnage and be the only one able to offer assistance before emergency services arrive.

Chaplains should consider the preparation of careers to face disasters as an important arm of their ministry.

[1] “Welfare qualifications” is a Diploma of Welfare Studies in the Humanities Department. It was a requirement for welfare workers in certain government and other organisations.

 

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