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Lifeline volunteers attend Westfield to support shoppers
Dozens of Lifeline Northern Beaches counsellors have been helping shoppers at Westfield Bondi Junction in the wake of the 13 April stabbing tragedy.
Lifeline NB (LNB) already had a community incident response protocol in place for crisis situations ‘of magnitude’. So chief executive officer Sarah Grattan offered the services of her counselling staff. “We (wanted) to be on the ground and provide some support for the community,” Ms Grattan said.
Experienced Northern Beaches crisis support workers formed part of a 10-person daily roster from April 18, when the centre re-opened for ‘community reflection’ – a sombre day when many traumatised Bondi locals came to pay their respects.
Led by LNB counselling manager Barbara Stenhouse, who developed the incident response protocol, the team was tasked with attending Bondi Junction Westfield for almost 10 days and offering in-person support – a change from the usual phone counselling service. Ms Stenhouse said it was the first time the protocol had been used on such a grand scale. “What we’ve been able to do is provide early intervention to increase emotional safety for the customers there and the retail staff and decrease the emotional distress.”
Initially when LNB started at the shopping centre, they were approached by ‘hundreds’ of distressed shoppers.
“People really had their world shaken – this is quite an extraordinary kind of event. So there was a lot of incredible sadness being expressed and sorrow for the loss of life,” Ms Stenhouse said.
Many wanting to talk struggled to come to terms with why the incident had happened in their community. Some had witnessed the event unfold and experienced trauma.
“Others were really impacted by the mental illness side of the perpetrator and what that means in terms of community safety.”
Ms Stenhouse said that LNB counsellors worked with a framework of validating the feelings of those affected. “The impact of a traumatic event like that can make people feel very much in that ‘flight fight’ response initially. What we do is normalise that response and we empower them to regain some sense of control.”
LNB’s own counsellors had a de-brief session every day to deal with the ‘vicarious trauma’ of what they were hearing. Ms Grattan said she was ‘so proud’ of the team. “(For them) putting their hand up even knowing how tough it would be. They are really just trying to help their fellow humans.”
If you need help, contact Lifeline 13 11 14. Donations: lifelinenb.org.au