부산대학교 도서관

Background: Suicide as well as homicide of a close person represent a traumatic experience which may be associated with serious consequences and risks for children, adolescents and their families. These cases generally result in deployment of psychosocial emergency care professionals, whose early and specific approaches are professionally indicated after highly stressful life experiences.Objectives: The aim of the study is to assess the experiences of professionals in psychosocial emergency care deployed in situations where suicide and/or homicide involves a person close to children. Thus, the conditions of care for affected families, the assessment of the need for help and the psychosocial emergency care services for affected children, adolescents and families that follow the immediate psychosocial acute care will be mapped.Methods: Data from 506 psychosocial emergency care professionals in German-speaking countries were collected via a partially standardised online questionnaire. Topics were the assessment of the need for care and the existing care situation of families after suicide/attempted suicide or attempted/completed homicide, the experiences of the professionals regarding their deployment following these indications and the training and (self-)assessment of competencies on relevant trauma-specific aspects.Results: Psychosocial emergency care professionals assess the need for further care differently according to the age of the affected children and partly contrary to current research. There are clear gaps in care for families affected by suicide/attempted suicide and homicide/attempted homicide. Psychosocial emergency care professionals themselves would like to have more competencies in the area of caring for children and adolescents after suicide/attempted suicide and homicide/attempted homicide. They also expressed the wish for a low-threshold back-up referral system.Conclusion: Psychosocial emergency care professionals see the need for further care among those affected, but describe a lack of external services. The services to which local referrals can be made are, in most cases, neither specific nor suitable; furthermore, they are not available at short notice. There is a need for immediately accessible specific support for both professionals and affected families, e.g. through an emergency telephone number.