We struggle to comprehend such violence towards innocent children and their teachers but do realize similar contemptible acts by mankind will occur in our communities in the future.

Given this reality, childmind.org offered some advice for caregivers of children on how to help children cope when such traumatic events occur. These offerings and others are listed below:

• To be therapeutic you must stay calm. Parents or other caregivers must not transfer their own anxieties or fears to the children in their care.
• Create an environment that affords them an opportunity to voice their fears and respond to their questions honestly and patiently. One does not have to “push” them to talk as this may be counterproductive but they must appreciate that you are comfortable discussing their fears.
• Be direct but also developmentally appropriate in your conversations. This interchange is best done in limited amounts over multiple conversations, not a single marathon sit-down. Expect a child to come back again and again with questions as they build a narrative about what happened; with your help it can be a healthy one, even if it is a very difficult subject.

  Assist the child in developing a narrative where they are a problem-solver, not a victim. Adoption of a victim stance lends itself to Post Traumatic Stress conditions.

• It is critical to make kids feel safe with love and continued routines. There is perhaps nothing more damaging to a child’s development than a feeling that the world is on balance a negative place. Security gives children confidence at the same time that it lets them be kids while they need to be.

  Although difficult, attempt to limit exposure from the surrounding environment. Turn the TV off as appropriate when young children are present. Excessive news reporting, especially detailing people in crisis can elevate anxieties even further.

• Finally, it’s important to keep an eye on kids and be alert to signs that they might not be recovering in a healthy way – changes in their patterns of sleep and eating, unusual irritability or trouble focusing, obsessive or pervasive worry that may take the form of pronounced separation anxiety.

At South Community we are attempting to transform mental health and physical health care for all of our patients but it really takes a community approach to make substantial and lasting change, especially with our most vulnerable child population. Research is confirming that the most important factors in creating resiliency in our children to allow them to recover from various traumas are the community interventions not individual interventions.