Employee/student forum to address reaction to mall shootings

Robin Gurwitch, Ph.D.

Daniel Nelson, M.D.

Two doctors from the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement will discuss the Dec. 5 Westroads Mall shooting during a forum for students and employees Thursday.

Psychologist Robin Gurwitch, Ph.D., and psychiatrist Daniel Nelson, M.D., will present “Responding to Crisis in the Medical Setting: Post Westroads Shootings” at noon Thursday in the Durham Research Center Auditorium.

Robin Zagurski, a clinical social worker in the UNMC psychiatry department, said the forum serves multiple purposes including providing information about emotional challenges that arise following disasters. The forum also will allow students and employees to discuss their own concerns and questions in the wake of the tragedy.

“This event really touched all of us,” Zagurski said. “With a city like Omaha, which is really a big, small town — it’s not six degrees of separation but rather two. For the rest of the city, everyone seems to have known someone who was there or was supposed to be there. But for us here at the medical center, it was our job to respond and to care for those who were affected.”

Drs. Gurwitch and Nelson will discuss topics such as:

• Recognizing emotional reactions after a crisis;
  
• Ideas for building resiliency in times of stress; and
  
• Understanding the behavioral health needs of patients and making appropriate referrals.

Both Drs. Gurwitch and Nelson have lent their respective talents and expertise to most of the major disasters that have occurred in the United States in the past 12 years.

Special Shrink Rap podcast Click here to listen to a podcast of a recent, two-hour special edition of Sunday Night Shrink Rap featuring UNMC psychiatrst James Sorrell, M.D. The special Shrink Rap allowed local youth to sound off about the shootings at Von Maur.

Dr. Nelson, medical director for the crisis center’s child psychiatry unit, served as a consultant following the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building, worked extensively with the New York Fire Department after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and also worked with social workers in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.

Dr. Gurwitch is program coordinator for the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement and professor in the department of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

Since the Oklahoma City bombing, she has dedicated much of her time to researching the impact of trauma and disaster on children.

She has served on state and national committees and taskforces focused on trauma, disaster, terrorism and violence, and has co-authored a treatment manual for use with young children after a trauma.

After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Dr. Gurwitch began provided training and consultation services on the impact of terrorism on children and providers to agencies, schools and even federal organizations.

She was involved in training school personnel and mental health professionals following the series of hurricanes in Florida in 2004 and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. She has been involved in curriculum development and mental health services in the aftermath of the hurricanes.

The forum is sponsored by UNMC, Region 6 Behavioral Health Care, and the Omaha Metro Medical Response System (OMMRS) Behavioral Health Subcommittee.