Coping After Tragedy

BY LIBBY CASTILLO

Four years after Texas’ deadliest mass shooting, the work of the Department of Counseling is having a lasting impact.

The town of Sutherland Springs, TX was left devastated after a tragic mass shooting in 2017 claimed the lives of 26 people. COEHD’s Department of Counseling was one of the many organizations who stepped in to provide multiple levels of support to the grieving community. Their efforts are carried on today through the thousands of school counselors and campus-based mental health professionals who received the department’s crisis training and education.

The UTSA Department of Counseling partnered with the Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas to establish Paloma Place, a mental health center for grieving members of the community, located in Floresville, Texas. Under the supervision of counseling faculty, UTSA staff and doctoral students provided on site counseling and neurofeedback services to children and adults of all ages, and training to school personnel on best practices for responding to community trauma and loss.

These practices are now available for future training to provide school counselors and other mental health professionals the competencies and processes needed in the aftermath of loss of life events.

Thelma Duffey, professor and chair in the Department of Counseling, served as a consultant to the Newtown community following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. She and several UTSA Department of Counseling faculty provided training and consultation to municipal leaders, school district administrators, teachers, staff, and impacted family members. They shared “lessons learned” with the Sutherland Springs and surrounding communities through various town meetings and trainings.

Elias Zambrano, Ph.D., UTSA retired professor of practice, organized the school training component. Zambrano brought together district counseling leaders utilizing various models of crisis response to coordinate a training protocol for impacted school districts. This resulted in an intensive two-day training for school-based crisis teams.

Through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) and a $150,000 donation from Whataburger, UTSA’s Academy for Crisis and Trauma Counseling (ACTC), under the auspices of COEHD’s Department of Counseling, was able to provide free services, programs and training to the community and schools. Additionally, mental health counseling services were coordinated with the Sutherland Springs Coordinated Response Collaborative consisting of other area mental health agencies who also received VOCA grants. Derek Robertson, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Counseling served as Principal Investigator of the VOCA grant.

Clinical mental health counseling services were offered at Paloma Place the counseling center opened in Floresville through its partnership with the Children’s Bereavement Center of San Antonio. Additionally, mental health counseling services were coordinated with the Sutherland Springs Coordinated Response Collaborative consisting of other area mental health agencies who also received VOCA grants.

“Crises of all kinds occur every day and impact community members of all ages and stages in life. While one can never prepare for the shock of a traumatic event, counselors can support their communities when such events occur,” Duffey said. “The goal of training and timely intervention is to help communities navigate complex loss and mitigate its devastating impact.”

The work of the ACTC has set in place a training protocol and related resources to assist campuses to respond to critical incidences when they occur.

Of the training, one school counselor and member of a response team said, “we all have the same training so we can count on others following the same steps. No matter when we are informed of the situation, we can access the documents and start the next day prepared and ready to go.”