Omagh bomb horror ‘made trauma professionals quit’
University of Ulster lecturer Dr Selwyn Black disclosed the shattering impact on paramedics and other health workers of the August 1998 attack, which killed 29 people and injured hundreds more.
Some clinicians who worked with the bereaved and injured became so isolated they felt unable to continue working, a major study found.
“A number of middle-aged medical emergency staff felt they could no longer cope emotionally with their jobs after the Omagh bombing.
“They had been exposed to some of the worst outrages of the Troubles during their working lives, and the Omagh bombing was just one experience too many,” Dr Black said.
“They described their feelings as emotional jugs filled to running over.”
Although less than 20% of trauma professionals suffer in this way, Dr Black found the effects can totally undermine values and personal beliefs.
The shocking impact emerged during ground-breaking University of Ulster research focusing on Omagh bomb clinicians, in a bid to achieve new care standards for trauma sufferers worldwide.
Dr Black’s work also examined the experiences of doctors during the civil war in Bosnia.
It established for the first time a framework for measuring the intensity of trauma suffered by doctors, nurses, psychologists and psychiatrists.
The research has also led to the establishment at the University of Ulster of the first postgraduate trauma course in Britain.
Workers dealing with Omagh bomb victims adopted either a defensive/avoidance coping style or one which was over-involved/open, Dr Black found.
He said: “Those coping styles inevitably affect how professionals work with their clients. This kind of research has much to contribute to clinical training regimes.”
