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Sandy Hook parents give feedback
During testimony to the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings highlighted the need for trauma-trained mental health professionals and a clearer path to services following a crisis.
The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission – comprised of 16 individuals from law enforcement, mental health, education and emergency response – has gathered information for the past two years and will make a broad series of public policy recommendations to enhance the safety of schools and community spaces and improve response to emergency situations. The November hearing was the last in 2014. As the commission nears finalization of the report, additional hearings may be scheduled in early 2015.
The December 2012 shootings at the Newtown elementary school left 20 children and six adult staff dead. The 20-year-old gunman committed suicide at the scene.
At the hearing, parents said there is a need to properly vet mental health support staff and clergy that are allowed in the staging area. They should have basic training in crisis response and trauma and be respectful of confidentiality, they said. The parents said that after the shootings, some counselors could not handle the intensity of the situation and quit; another breached confidentiality by telling others she was working with victims.
One family went through three mental health experts in two days. “The family felt they were providing the support for the counselors, that the counseling team was breaking down,” relays Scott Jackson, chairman of the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission and Mayor of the town of Hamden.
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“They talked about not having counselors who really understood that level of grief,” Jackson says.
“They talked about the need for continued help, especially for surviving siblings,” Jackson says. “This certainly indicates that the need for mental health services is a process, not a quick fix.”
After the crisis, many agencies got involved in trying to help. “Everybody on the globe wanted to help,” Jackson says, adding, “A patchwork of resources made it really hard to penetrate.”
The parents indicated the path to services was not clear, they didn’t know all that was available to them and counselors were not always proactive. One couple who lost a child said they only became aware that a case worker was assigned to them about two years after the tragedy. The parents recommended case workers visit the family at home, rather than making a phone call or sending an email, which could be easily overlooked in the debilitating aftermath of a crisis.
The parents recommend a triage-based protocol be put in place ahead of time, establishing an immediate chain of command at the victim family staging area. Establishing tight security and privacy within that area is paramount, they said.
Jackson says the families’ suggestions and other information gathered over the past two years of hearings is being considered as the panel prepares its report.
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Jackson says the commission is looking into such issues as to what can be done to retrofit school buildings as needed and where there are gaps in policies. For example, he mentioned the building of one school in his community. “At the time we built that, we had to meet code for lighting,” he says. Yet, “there were no codes for security.”
Other recommendations will focus on regular reviews of school safety operation standards. Additionally, Jackson says it is important to discuss how, in the absence of a county structure, individual cities and towns can best coordinate a response because resources can be overwhelmed quickly.