BOMB FUND TO DECIDE ON AWARDS TO TRAUMA VICTIMS
Bomb fund to decide on awards to trauma victims
THE Omagh Fund trustees are close to making a decision on whether or not to award payments to people who were mentally scarred by the Market Street bomb of August 15, last year.
Other funds, such as those set up in Enniskillen and Dunblane, have not dealt with the area of mental health, but the trustees of the Omagh Fund - which currently stands at �1.8 million - are seeking medical information on the nature of post-traumatic stress disorder.
On Monday morning, the trustees will attend a seminar in the postgraduate training centre in the Tyrone County Hospital, where they will be briefed on the nature of trauma by experts from the Sperrin Lakeland Health and Social Care Trust.
"After that briefing session, we will take into account the response of the trauma team and make a decision about the post-traumatic stress disorder issue," said Mr Brian Oliphant, fund manager.
"Bearing in mind that the ultimate decision will depend on size of the fund, we must take an informed stance with the help of the professionals. But if the money is not there then it can't be done," he added.
Mr Michael Duffy, trauma team co-ordinator, said that people who were mentally injured by the bomb had needs that must be acknowledged.
"Psychological injuries can be very bit as damaging as physical injuries, and we welcome the opportunity of trying to educate the trustees as to how a tragedy like this can emotionally impact on people," said Mr Duffy.
Accompanying Mr Duffy to the seminar will be two psychiatrists, two psychologists, a senior social worker and a senior nurse therapist.
"We will be trying to make the trustees aware of how such a tragedy can injure a person's psyche as well as their body, although the trauma team will have no part to play in advising them in individual cases," he said.
"A lot of people whose wounds cannot be seen need the same degree of understanding in the community as those whose wounds are obvious to the naked eye," he added.
The fund's team of 'volunteer visitors' has now met with most of the bereaved and injured applicants, and the trustees will now begin assessing their claims by examining the information in the questionnaires which have been completed and collected.
Almost �618,000 has been awarded to 237 bereaved and injured people to date, and the trustees do not intend to make many more payments from the fund until the middle of the year.
"We are entering a more difficult phase, and this is the situation for which all other funds have been criticised. We may appear to be doing very little, but we will be looking at the information contained in the forms to be fair in our decision making," said Mr Oliphant.
He said the trustees planned to make substantial payments from the fund during June and July.
"We are now trying to cope with the difficult task of dispersing the larger sums of money, and we will hopefully come up with a series of fair and robust decisions on how the larger sums of money should be dispersed to the bereaved and injured," he said.
Before the end of the month the fund trustees will send a delegation, which will include a Spanish-speaking social worker, to Madrid to meet the Spanish families who were affected by the bomb.
And at the beginning of February, the next edition of the Omagh Fund quarterly newsletter will be sent to all those who were injured by the bomb, and to every person who has subsequently registered an interest with the fund.
THE Omagh Fund trustees are close to making a decision on whether or not to award payments to people who were mentally scarred by the Market Street bomb of August 15, last year.
Other funds, such as those set up in Enniskillen and Dunblane, have not dealt with the area of mental health, but the trustees of the Omagh Fund - which currently stands at �1.8 million - are seeking medical information on the nature of post-traumatic stress disorder.
On Monday morning, the trustees will attend a seminar in the postgraduate training centre in the Tyrone County Hospital, where they will be briefed on the nature of trauma by experts from the Sperrin Lakeland Health and Social Care Trust.
"After that briefing session, we will take into account the response of the trauma team and make a decision about the post-traumatic stress disorder issue," said Mr Brian Oliphant, fund manager.
"Bearing in mind that the ultimate decision will depend on size of the fund, we must take an informed stance with the help of the professionals. But if the money is not there then it can't be done," he added.
Mr Michael Duffy, trauma team co-ordinator, said that people who were mentally injured by the bomb had needs that must be acknowledged.
"Psychological injuries can be very bit as damaging as physical injuries, and we welcome the opportunity of trying to educate the trustees as to how a tragedy like this can emotionally impact on people," said Mr Duffy.
Accompanying Mr Duffy to the seminar will be two psychiatrists, two psychologists, a senior social worker and a senior nurse therapist.
"We will be trying to make the trustees aware of how such a tragedy can injure a person's psyche as well as their body, although the trauma team will have no part to play in advising them in individual cases," he said.
"A lot of people whose wounds cannot be seen need the same degree of understanding in the community as those whose wounds are obvious to the naked eye," he added.
The fund's team of 'volunteer visitors' has now met with most of the bereaved and injured applicants, and the trustees will now begin assessing their claims by examining the information in the questionnaires which have been completed and collected.
Almost �618,000 has been awarded to 237 bereaved and injured people to date, and the trustees do not intend to make many more payments from the fund until the middle of the year.
"We are entering a more difficult phase, and this is the situation for which all other funds have been criticised. We may appear to be doing very little, but we will be looking at the information contained in the forms to be fair in our decision making," said Mr Oliphant.
He said the trustees planned to make substantial payments from the fund during June and July.
"We are now trying to cope with the difficult task of dispersing the larger sums of money, and we will hopefully come up with a series of fair and robust decisions on how the larger sums of money should be dispersed to the bereaved and injured," he said.
Before the end of the month the fund trustees will send a delegation, which will include a Spanish-speaking social worker, to Madrid to meet the Spanish families who were affected by the bomb.
And at the beginning of February, the next edition of the Omagh Fund quarterly newsletter will be sent to all those who were injured by the bomb, and to every person who has subsequently registered an interest with the fund.
Further Information
Publisher: TYRONE CONSTITUTION
Ref: TC/0593
Published Date: 14-Jan-99
Related Images
There have been no images archived for this article.