This process helps survivors regain some sense of control or mastery over their lives. By providing a forum to help participants predict future events and their reactions to them, victims are better prepared to respond in control. The debriefing is critical in laying the foundation for a support system and through sharing common feelings provides comfort. It helps ameliorate long-term adverse affects, adds structure to a crisis, and helps contain chaos and confusion. This can be incredibly taxing and too often, teachers and school staff feel alone with this burden.
Teaching is a high stress job even without a disaster.
Therefore, it's important to learn and develop ways to relieve stress and to develop support systems for teachers and staff. Following are some strategies. This is predictable and understandable. Leaders and staff need to expect and prepare for it. Individual visits by mental health professionals to caregivers and those in leadership positions can be very helpful.