In just over two months, mass shootings have caused 13 deaths and significant physical and emotional trauma in three communities.
The impact of gang warfare has been brutal since March 16, when five people were killed in the first mass shooting at Harpe Place, Port-of-Spain. Just a few weeks later, four people were shot dead at Phase 1, Powder Magazine, Cocorite, and the latest incident started on Hermitage Road in Gonzales and ended on the compound of the Port-of-Spain General Hospital last Sunday, resulting in four more lives lost.
A lot of focus has been on the body count from these mass shootings, the investigations and the need to track down and arrest the perpetrators.
However, there hasn’t been as much attention on the needs of the victims — those with physical injuries, the bereaved families and the traumatised witnesses.
Repercussions are being felt at individual, relational, organisational and societal levels, not only in the communities where the shootings occurred but across the country. It is an urgent need with severe long-term consequences that should not be ignored.
Parish priest Fr Matthew d’Hereaux touched on this important issue when he led a Mass and Liturgy of Lamentation for the deceased at the St Martin de Porres RC Church in Gonzales on Wednesday.
Hopefully, the authorities and corporate T&T paid attention to what he said.
While Fr d’Hereaux made his appeal to faith-based organisations, the state and the private sector should also take on the task of putting mechanisms in place to support the victims and survivors of violent crime.
It is difficult to process grief, especially in cases of murder and violence, where anger and fear are also part of the equation.
Residents of Harpe Place, Powder Magazine and Gonzales, as well as every part of this country that has been rocked by gang violence, are struggling with shared hurt and disbelief.
Preventive interventions are needed for all the affected individuals, families and communities. Life as it used to be has been extensively disrupted and there is a collective sense of grief that might be beyond the capacity of what the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services can provide.
However, that should not be given as an excuse not to mobilise all that is available to provide individual and group-based therapeutic support to help survivors of these recent mass shootings.
The options are either to uncover and work through the trauma of those experiences, or brace for the consequences of untreated grief and trauma on mental health and well-being, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression.
Professional mental health support counselling can help the residents in these communities, already stigmatised as crime hotspots, who regularly complain about being neglected by the authorities.
They need support as they come to terms with the violence that has plagued their communities and search for ways to recover.
Witnessing community violence is particularly traumatic for children whose sense of safety has been shattered, making them prone to long-lasting trauma. Professional interventions to tend to the mental and emotional needs of children in these three communities should be a priority.
Overall, there needs to be greater sensitivity and respect for all the victims and survivors of these mass shootings.
Fr d’Hereaux’s appeal for recovery and healing services should be heeded.