NEWS ADVISORY — Forum on mall shootings rescheduled for Friday

Robin Gurwitch, Ph.D.

Daniel Nelson, M.D.

An employee/student forum about the Dec. 5 Westroads Mall shooting set for today has been rescheduled for Friday at noon in the Eppley Science Hall Amphitheater.

During the forum, psychologist Robin Gurwitch, Ph.D., and psychiatrist Daniel Nelson, M.D., will present “Responding to Crisis in the Medical Setting: Post Westroads Shootings.”

Drs. Gurwitch and Nelson, both members of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement, 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.

Public meetings Region 6 Behavioral Healthcare and the Omaha Metro Medical Response System will host public meetings on Thursday and Friday to bring together members of the public who were affected by the Westroads shootings. The meetings are part of a plan to help Omaha and surrounding communities deal with the grief and loss associated with such an intense disaster. The meetings are free and open to the public. The meeting times and locations are: Thursday — 6:30 to 8 p.m., Glad Tidings Church (West Fellowship Hall — enter through south entrance), 7415 Hickory St. For directions call 391-6515. Friday — 4 to 5:30 p.m., Holiday Inn Convention Center (Holiday Ballroom), 72nd and Grover streets.

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.

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