Current Events

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Abstract

Tragedy is part of human life, and we have to find practical ways to deal with it. One family suffered from a tragic fire incident that left their home razed down. As the crisis interventionist, I have to be on hand to help the family to deal with the situation. This includes addressing their physical, emotional, psychological and material wellbeing. There are several steps that should be taken in this situation. The first step is to assess the crisis facing the family. The family’s physical wellbeing needs to be addressed. Next, their basic human needs such as food, clothes, and shelter need to be addressed. After this, the long-term situation needs to be examined. There need to be solutions as to how the family can get a new home and reestablish their daily lives. The best way to do this is to begin with counseling so that the trauma of the day can be addressed.

On the news, I watched the story of a family whose home had been destroyed in a wildfire. The parents and two kids had barely escaped with their lives as they drove just as the fire descended on their home. They had no time to take any valuables or anything else; they just left with the clothes on their backs and nothing else. They were obviously traumatized by the whole experience but were grateful to have made it out alive.

The central crisis in this situation for the family is that they may be suffering from shock because they almost died. They had to drive through flames as they left their burning home. They also lost all their belongings and have no place to spend the night. The third crisis is how to recover from the tragedy and rebuild their lives. The first step with regard to their physical wellbeing is to have them checked out in a hospital (Boscarino 2015). They have to undergo a checkup since someone may have been hurt as they ran away but are still in a state of shock. Depending on the doctor’s recommendation, they can stay at the hospital for as long as necessary. The vent was traumatic for them, especially the kids.

The next crisis is that they lost all their property. What I would do is to ask them first to focus on the fact that they managed to live through the terrible scenario. The immediate problem is not to worry about what they lost but to prioritize their wellbeing. Because they have nowhere to spend the night, I would ask them if they had any friends or family living close by. Putting up with people that they are familiar with would give the family a sense of comfort. It would also help them feel safe for their psychological wellbeing.

After taking care of the immediate concerns, the third point is to think about the long-term situation. I would offer several solutions to the family. First, I would suggest that they go through counseling for the trauma they experienced. It is likely that the effects of that day will take years to get over. The young children need to get counselling to be able to get back any sense of normalcy in their lives. The kids should also return to their regular schedules as soon as possible such as going to school and other daily activities. This would help them to cope better. Therapy has many advantages, and failure to do it would result in a lifetime of distress (Boscarino 2015). The second thing that I would do is to encourage the family to look on the bright side. The property that they lost can be replaced while their lives cannot. They still remain a family, and they can rebuild from the ground up. Losing a life would have been so much more tragic. The family also has to take stock of the situation. They might have had their home insured, and therefore they would have to file the necessary claims. There are also numerous disaster response agencies that would help them as they got back on their feet. They would be able to receive medical attention, food, clothes and some compensation as a result of their suffering from the natural disaster. The experience should be one that the family looks at as an opportunity to stay strong and resilient (Boscarino 2015). Years later, they would look back and be grateful for the lessons learned. So many others were not able to survive the fire, and so they should count themselves lucky.

References

Boscarino, J. A. (2015). Community disasters, psychological trauma, and crisis intervention. International journal of emergency mental health, 17(1), 369.