It is important to help individuals who have suffered some dreadful experience including a traumatic bereavement.  However, it is also important not to make matters worse.  The following are some useful steps.

Comfort and protect from further harm

• Physical safety and physical needs such as for food, water and heat are essential and must be met as soon as possible.
  

Reduce the sense of helplessness

• Engage survivors as soon as they are able to take control of at least some aspects of their lives or to help others who may have been caught up in the same trauma and are even worse off.
  

Re-establish a sense of order and control

• Survivors of trauma have experienced an episode in their lives during which they felt they had no control over their destiny or even of the likelihood of surviving.  They would have experienced a world of chaos and total uncertainty. 
• A sense of order can be conveyed by setting out, for example, a timetable with regard to certain essential events (e.g.,  treatment, eating, sleeping, transportation, and meeting colleagues, friends or loved ones). 
• Keep unforeseen changes to a minimum.

Allow the expression of feelings

• Nobody has to express their feelings.  Each individual is likely to know when sharing feelings would be helpful and with whom and where. 
• Attentive and caring listening is better than questioning.

Reassure them of the normality of their feelings

• It does not help if survivors of trauma believe that they are reacting in a "silly" or inappropriate way. 
• Certainly, when faced by their first major trauma in life, survivors have generally no idea of what is "normal" or acceptable.  They should be reassured that they are displaying normal reactions and are not "going out of their minds".
  

Avoid clichés

• People often say ridiculous things, some of which can be very hurtful to individuals after traumatic experiences including bereavement.  Examples are:
  
• "You're lucky you are alive" 
  (The individual may have hideous injuries and may regret being alive or they may also be suffering from survivor guilt.)
  
• "You can't live your life for the dead"
  (This is utterly meaningless.)
  
• "I know just how you feel"
  (We should never suggest that we know how another person feels even if we have been through a similar event.)
  
• "It could have been worse" 
  (It is all very relative; to the survivor nothing might seem worse.)

Provide accurate information

• Providing accurate information also helps to impose a sense of order and control. 
• However, because trauma survivors often display numbness, shock and denial, they may not be able to take in such information particularly if it is detailed and complex.  Thus, keep it simple, and repeat it several times if necessary. 
  

Re-unite with others

• Whenever possible, try to link up trauma survivors with others who were involved in the same events and with family and friends or colleagues. 
• Victims of shared trauma appear to band together and this may be a powerful source of support.
  

Sources of support

• In the community there will be various lay and voluntary agencies who will provide care for victims of different types of trauma.
• Details of such agencies are usually held in the local Reference Library and/or by the local Social Work Department. 
• Consider also encouraging the individual to seek professional help through the general practitioner if there is evidence that they are not adjusting satisfactorily.