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TREATING THE EFFECTS OF TRAUMA ON THE CRIME SCENE
INVESTIGATOR
By Dr. David Christiansen
This article was reprinted from The Silent Witness, The
Official Publication of the Rocky Mountain Division of the International
Association for Identification.
Imagine a crime scene. Picture in your mind the gruesome sight of a family
dispute that went terribly wrong and the result is a blood-spattered home in
which weapons were fired and once-vibrant lives were cut short in a rampage of
violent anger.
Hard to image, isn't it? Not if you are a crime scene
investigator who has been called in to re-create the scenario and determine who
shot whom and in what order. Crime scene investigators are called upon to
examine such scenes while the bodies are still present, the
smell is still malodorous, and the essence of life only faintly removed. The
scene is still and quiet but it is not hard to imagine the chaos that resulted
in such tragedy and it's not
hard to see that perhaps only hours ago each of the dead bodies in the room was
alive with the hopes and dreams that resides within each of us. Often it is not
hard to imagine
that the stressors and frustrations that led to such a horrible scene are
somehow common to all of us one time or another.
The immediate reaction is repugnancy, an attempt to somehow turn away from what
is presented visually to us, to minimize it's impact, to want to make it go
away. We turn
to a variety of coping strategies that we are seldom forced to use elsewhere. In
the beginning we may leave the room or take a role in the most remote way we
can, to stay on the periphery, to do the work least connected with the worst of
it. Others may turn to poor attempts at humor to appease their own anxiety. Some
grow silent, as the scene seems to permeate them, moving through them like a
cold fog. Still others become very factual, attending to detail in such a way
that the personalities of the slain people are removed and human vitality is
reduced quickly to numbers and angles and number of rounds fired.
It is hard enough to imagine this scene once and yet crime scene investigators
are asked to repeat this process dozens, sometimes hundreds, of times in their
careers. And often they are asked to do this without ever giving a hint that it
is disturbing, or frightening, or too close to home. Being professional is
sometimes construed as being tough or
impervious to the emotional anger, confusion and depression that swallows the
investigator in unknown ways and leads to intra-pshyic turmoil that often goes
undetected for years. Unchecked, it can lead to numerous problems that are
frequently misunderstood.
One of the consequences of having a job definition which includes frequent
exposure to trauma or it's aftermath, is an insidious infection of pessimism, a
growing sense of
hopelessness that begins to permeate the professional's personal life. It is
observed at first as frustration or anger that such trauma exists, and it can
end with a pervasive sense of futility. What begins with an unspoken outrage
that people do unspeakable things to other people ends with a philosophical
despair that can lead to an abrupt change in career or worse, suicidal
depression.
On the other hand, a professional can so insulate himself and harden himself so
that he is numb to such situations and begins to detach himself from the very
real human aspects of any tragedy. This can often transcend into one's personal
life and a growing tendency to trivialize the more mundane difficulties endured
by loved ones. It is as though the professional's yardstick for measuring human
emotion is inexorably altered to include the bizarre and sensational at the
expense of concern for day-to-day difficulties. The professional then comes
across to his own family and friends as uncaring or insensitive when in fact he
has been traumatized himself into a new dimension of awareness. These problems
are undoubtedly complicated by a professional expectation that one remains
unmoved by tragedy and stoic in responding to the obscene. A culture is
maintained in which emotion is considered weakness and imperturbability a virtue
despite the outcome that it costs colleagues their careers and sometimes their
lives.
The result, too often, is an accumulation of emotional
distress that psychologists refer to as post-traumatic stress disorder. This
disorder came into clear focus following the
Vietnam era when many veterans returned from combat and were quickly sent home,
individually, to communities who did not respond to the sacrifices made by the
veterans, there were no "hero's welcome" parades, no national celebration which
served to put the war into perspective of service in the name of freedom. Thus
isolated and "untreated", the veterans began to seek treatment years after the
conflict, troubled by a lack of emotionality, exaggerated startled responses,
and hyper-vigilance. In essence, even years after returning home, the impact of
the trauma they had seen was vividly recreated in their minds and triggered by
normal events in life.
Crime scene investigators are subject to the same types of
devastation of human life, though often over a greater period of time and in
smaller portions. Post-traumatic stress disorder can be seen in
professionals who lose their perspective, who develop negative
explanatory styles, and react to stress in ways that further exacerbate the
problems rather than relieving them.
There are several steps that can be taken to ameliorate the situation and to
provide relief from the complicated problems that result. Research has shown
that "de-briefings meetings are effective in relieving the immediate effects of
a traumatic situation. It is important to have a mental health professional
available to facilitate the meeting, keeping the group on task and looking for
indictors of distress. A "peer counselor" is often desired as well, someone who
has been in the trenches who now serves as a co-facilitator, in essence
validating the effects of trauma on the professional. The purpose of debriefings
is to identify the immediate effects of stress, to give verbal and consensual
expression to what would otherwise remain unspoken. Saying even a few words and
receiving the
support from others present at the scene often serves a healing purpose and
frequently is preventive of further psychological damage, which is fostered by
isolation.
A second step toward mitigating potential problems for professionals is the
availability of a psychologist for individual follow-up. When law enforcement
agencies recognize the inevitable effects of stress on those who respond to
trauma, they can set the tone for recovery by encouraging their employees to
seek help without indemnity. A healthy agency encourages it's employees to seek
help they believe has occurred as a result of the job and recognizes the
long-term benefit and cost effectiveness of a "dose" of therapy delivered at the
time. And they may weigh those costs against those of hiring and re-training
someone to take the place of those who leave the department for unspecified
reasons.
Changing the culture of the crime scene investigators may take some time. It can
be started when one professional acknowledges when a scene is gruesome and
offensive to the senses or notices when a colleague is particularly affected. It
may be the first or the forty-first scene one has been on that trips the trigger
of emotionality from which the professional may have difficulty recovering. A
particular smell, or sight, or reminder of one's own family may be the impetus
for emotional discontrol and the best remedy is verbal expression and validation
of emotion.
Although "therapy" and "seeing a therapist" sounds like a serious problem, many
people who do seek help are ordinary people who are having difficulty adjusting
to one of life's
trials and their "therapy" is often brief and very helpful when given by a
trained professional. One's own philosophy of life is often challenged by
such serious events and may need adaptation in order to continue to be of help
to the individual. For example,
many children are raised with the belief that if someone behaves well then no
ill or evil will cross their path. Or we tend to believe that bad things happen
to bad people. This philosophy can go unchallenged by some adults but most of us
have to adjust our philosophy to include the fact that sometimes innocent people
are victims of very
hurtful, malicious people through no fault of their own. Having a personal
philosophy which allows for trauma to occur to the innocent can be a preventive
measure to help
insure that the professional is not overwhelmed by the grief and sadness their
daily work brings to them.
On a more practical note, those who are traumatized often suffer from insomnia,
unable to sleep because flashbacks occur involuntarily. To be brief about this,
those persons are often helped through focusing on the body itself, rather than
the trauma. This will sound too simple to those who have suffered the effects of
trauma but the sleep cycle can be restored by focusing on what I refer to as the
"Three B's," body, breathing, and the brain.
First, one has to totally relax the body using progressive relaxation, often
beginning with the toes and finishing with the head and shoulders. Tension of
muscles followed by relaxing of the muscle groups in a progressive manner leaves
the body feeling more calm and the individual more aware of where the body
tension is being stored, in the hands, for example, or in a clenched jaw. Once
the body is relaxed, the interior muscle groups of the body can be calmed
through deep breathing, usually 12-15 breaths released slowly through the nose
will further relax the body and it sends a signal to the adrenal glands to "calm
down" for the night.
Lastly, learning to focus one's brain on a given thought
for several minutes will often lead to sleep. When these steps are repeated, not
only at bedtime but throughout the day, a person learns how to bring the effects
of trauma in the body (racing thoughts, sweating,
poor digestion, ect.,) under conscious control and relief comes more quickly.
This does take practice and may in fact be learned prior to trauma so as to
alleviate the problems more effectively following the trauma.
In sum, crime scene investigators and others who are required to attend to
traumatic situations as part of their professions can better secure themselves
against severe aftereffects by
1)
anticipating trauma and developing a personal philosophy or explanatory
style which brings intra-psychic resolution and
2)
by developing an agency policy which allows professionals to seek help
without recrimination but instead is encouraged by the agency and
3)
developing relationships with colleagues in which spontaneous,
on-the-scene assistance is offered and
4)
requesting and receiving debriefings from trained professionals and
5)
learning effective ways of regulating the body and brain into being more
cooperative following trauma by restoring a regular sleep cycle as quickly as
possible.
Perhaps it is time for agencies involved regularly in
trauma response to formulate policies that will assist in the well being of
their professionals, to prevent "burnout" and personal despair, and instead to
acknowledge that others are trained in providing assistance in times of need.
Dr. David Christiansen is a psychologist in private practice in Greeley, CO
and he is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Northern Colorado, He
is a consultant with law enforcement agencies and provides training and
professional services to persons affected by trauma.
He can be reached at:
David L. Christiansen, Psy.D.
Licensed Psychologist
3527 W. 12th St. Suite 201
Greeley, CO 80634
(970) 352-2774
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