Category: Mental Health, Trauma Category: Mental Health, Trauma (show less) Other: Illinois Other: Illinois (show less)

On Wednesday, October 25, 2023, Lewiston/Auburn, Maine survived a mass casualty event, and a 48-hour man hunt for the person responsible for murdered eighteen community members. And then on Monday, life resumed as normal. Including the demands and expectations as clinicians. Holly Slonina, LMSW-cc, and Lynne Schmidt, LMSW-cc will share their personal experiences during the mass shooter event and areas where their agencies supported and failed their staff in the following days. This workshop will share TraumaInformed Practices in the hopes to encourage and help other agencies implement crisis policies to be better prepared. No one wants to believe that a mass casualty event will occur in their community, and as such agencies are often ill prepared when they do occur. This workshop will aim to discuss the presenters' experiences on Wednesday, October 25, 2023, with an event that left eighteen people dead and a 48-hour manhunt. Upon returning to work on Monday, the expectations and demands at the clinical level for supporting their clients and community continued on as though nothing of consequence had occurred. There was no debriefing from management. There was no discussion. And management continued to fill client spaces, so clinicians did not have time to breathe while supporting their clients and their client's experiences. This workshop will explore when the people who are supposed to help, are also deeply effected by the events and how to support both clients and employees following a community mass casualty event. This workshop will explore aspects of community support and ways to allow employees to access them as they need, mental health breaks between clients, and the idea that just because there is an open space for a client to fill does not mean that when a crisis occurs, the space needs to be filled. Presenters will explore ways agencies and their management can communicate with their employees to ensure sound mental health and support, while allowing employees to navigate what they are able to take on in the event of what may become a national crisis.