Reacción a "Emotional impact of the crash between two high-speed trains on relatives, survivors and train users"

When we say that psychological intervention is needed in this type of disaster, we are referring to family members; injured people; and those who, although not injured, were on the train, as well as people who travel on a train line such as the one from Madrid to Huelva or Málaga who say: ‘it could have been me’. 

We say that psychological intervention is important because one of the things that must always be done is to minimise possible psychological impacts and reduce the possibility of developing future pathologies associated with what has happened, which is a potentially traumatic event. What we seek with early intervention –for people who request it, because not everyone will need early intervention– is to be there, to be present and to reach out to all those who need it. It is about initiating a brief, focused psychological intervention, centred on what has just happened. 

And what are we aiming for? If there is a dysfunction, we want to activate coping mechanisms to deal with what has happened. We also want to mobilise adaptive resources. Almost all of us have resilience [...]; we want to activate those resources. 

We always tell them to get together with loved ones, to call them, to be accompanied. It is important to go through this whole process and, if necessary, activate some psychological resources, such as emotional self-regulation, or give them strategies for dealing with moments like those experienced when an accident such as yesterday's train crash occurs. Ultimately, it is also about increasing that sense of self-efficacy, giving people what they need based on how they are feeling at that moment, in the present, always from a position of autonomy and empowering that person because it is also correlated with how they are coping. 

We also advise watching out for symptoms that stay intense and frequent. At first, it is normal for [those symptoms] to be very intense, but they should gradually decrease over time. If after a month they are still very intense, then referrals will have to be made. 

As for the general population, when we read news like this, it has an impact on us because we are people with a certain sensitivity to the event. In general, it does not go beyond that impact, but there are some people who may be more vulnerable. I remember that, [after the Madrid train bombings] on 11 March [2004], one of the things that happened when people started watching television and hearing the news was that some elderly people called because they felt that war was returning to Spain. They were vulnerable because they had suffered quite traumatic experiences at one point, and sometimes it depends on how you view the news or what you see in that moment. You may need [psychological care], but in general, the general population does not need that kind of intervention. 

In any case, if anyone feels that their trauma is being triggered by something, they should immediately consult with their specialist [healthcare provider], either by telephone or through groups that are already available, both in Madrid and Huelva, to receive psychological care and be assessed by a professional who can offer them help.