Abstract

Hadil Aloloum

The Grenfell Health & Wellbeing Service (GHWS) was established in the immediate aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire on 14th June 2017. The fire killed 72 people and affected a whole community in North Kensington, London. The need to develop a specialized service to the local BME community was readily identified. The GHWS now comprises the largest trauma and major disaster response psychological therapy service for adults and children. The service offers a range of evidence based therapies treating both simple and complex PTSD. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is one of the core psychological therapies provided. EMDR has proven highly effective in treating simple PTSD related to exposure to the Grenfell Tower fire for survivors and witnesses, but also for traumatic bereavement for families and friends who lost loved ones. The children and young people’s services provides trauma screening, assessment and evidence-based trauma focused therapies for children, young people and families. Working with large numbers of children experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder has required innovation and creativity. One way forward has been the adapted use of protocols such as EMDR Integrative Group Therapy Protocol (EMDR-IGTP, Jarero & Artigas, 2009). The experience of delivering the EMDR Integrated Group Treatment Protocol which was delivered in two formats: 1) with whole families (parents and siblings) and 2) in groups of children who were still symptomatic after already taking part in psych-education & stabilization group treatment will be discussed. The routine outcome measures used to assess baseline measures as well as change have been the children’s revised impact of events scale (CRIES-8). In the family groups, SCORE 15 is administered to measure the impact of the fire on the family functioning and to monitor any changes. The preliminary results and learning from the innovative work will be presented and hope that this will inform trauma work in response to any future large scale tragedies.