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How trauma of Omagh affected medical teams
By Gary Grattan

A NUMBER of middle-aged medical emergency staff felt they could no longer cope emotionally with their jobs after the Omagh bombing, a new report has found.
Dr Selwyn Black, a lecturer in counselling at the University of Ulster, has explored the effects on clinicians working with traumatised clients following the Omagh bombing in which 29 people and two unborn babies were killed and more than 200 others injured.
"They had been exposed to some of the worst outrages of the troubles during their working lives and Omagh was just one experience too many," he said.
From his work Dr Black has established for the first time a framework for measuring the intensity of trauma suffered by people directly affected.
It has been developed in conjunction with UU colleague Professor Peter Weinreich's work in identity structure analysis - and has led to the establishment at the UU of the UK's first postgraduate trauma course.
The course is delivered in joint partnership with the School of Communication, University of Ulster with Staff Care Services, South and East Belfast Health and Social Services Trust. The first students to take the course received their certificates recently and it is hoped the course will be developed to diploma and masters levels.