Witness can still feel ‘fear and uncertainty’
Acute stress disorder and PTSD may result if people don’t get help, experts say
The first shot seemed out of place — a strange and unfamiliar sound in a shopping mall.
But the second pop of a semi-automatic handgun struck fear into Erica Solmes, then a 19-year-old manager at the Eaton Centre McDonald’s.
“I was truly terrified for my life,” says Solmes. “I was also terrified for the survival of those around me.”
On June 2, 2012, Christopher Husbands unleashed 14 rounds at the Eaton Centre food court, leaving one man dead, another fatally wounded and five bystanders injured.
“I can feel the fear and uncertainty, clear as day, when I recall the moments of that Saturday evening,” Solmes, who grew up in Belleville, Ont., says in an email. “(It) was challenging for me to continue to enjoy the Toronto environment.” She now lives north of the city. “Growing up in a small town, it was just easier for me to leave Toronto.”
People who witness violent crimes and other tragic events can suffer serious, emotional and psychological distress, but many of them never get the help they need, due to a lack of awareness about treatment options and the stigma of discussing mental health.
“We know there are lots of people we are not hearing from one way or another,” says Bobbie McMurrich, associate executive director of Victim Services Toronto, which works with about 20,000 people per year, many of them witnesses to murders, gun crimes, sexual assaults, suicides, traffic deaths and even workplace injuries.
The primary way that witnesses are connected to Victim Services is through the police. But depending on when, or whether, authorities talk to them, a witness may not be referred to help for days, if at all.
“People do fall through the cracks. Definitely witnesses more so,” says McMurrich.
“When there’s a crime, we know it impacts the immediate victim and their family,” she adds. “But there is obviously a ripple effect that a lot of people don’t really register and that’s the witnesses, absolutely.”
In the immediate aftermath of a violent event, the priority is to make sure a witness is in a safe and supportive environment while they come down from “a heightened state of ‘freeze, fight, or fright,’ ” McMurrich says.
That may be enough for some people.
Solmes, for instance, says she does not believe she suffered lasting psychological effects from the Eaton Centre shooting and has not sought therapy or counselling in connection to it.
But about 50 per cent of witnesses or victims of serious crime or disasters can develop Acute Distress Disorder, says psychiatrist Dr. Rodney Slonim, of Mount Sinai Hospital’s Crisis Clinic.
“Some people in the midst of this kind of reaction can have flashbacks, as if the event is reoccurring. And they may have prolonged psychological distress,” he says.
That can mean anxiety, tremors, sweating, even an inability to experience positive emotions like happiness or love.
Certain conditions can make a person more susceptible to these symptoms. Prolonged exposure to a dangerous event can make a person more susceptible, as can having a close relationship to someone physically injured by it.
“The literature suggests10 to 30 per cent of those individuals who are exposed to a (traumatic) event like that will go on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder,” he adds.
Reaching witnesses or victims early on can help ward off the entrenchment of psychological problems. Victim Services connects witnesses or victims to other resources, such as Slonim’s crisis clinic, as needed.
“If people are receiving the support that they need, the hope is that these symptoms dissolve over a severalweek period,” McMurrich says.
Officers must be mindful of people in distress when they attend a crime scene or investigation, says Toronto police spokesperson Meaghan Gray.
If they think someone might need help, an officer should inform them Victim Services Toronto can help and, with their permission, put them in touch with the organization. The city of Toronto’s Community Crisis Response Program helps residents of neighbourhoods affected by violence connect to, and navigate, support services.
The Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General funds 47 organizations across the province that deliver “crisis assistance” to victims and witnesses, says ministry spokesperson Sean Driscoll. “Through this program, eligible witnesses who have no other financial means can access a number of benefits, including counselling services and transportation to counselling.”
Even if witnesses are aware help is available to them, they may not be willing to ask for it.
“People can call on their own if they hear about us, but that’s a pretty tough call to make,” says McMurrich. “Not a lot of people are comfortable making that kind of call.”
For many people, there is a stigma around getting help, says Jooyoung Lee, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Toronto.
While researching the effects of street violence in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Toronto, Lee has spent countless hours with people whose lives have been touched by violent crimes.
And young men in inner-city settings are particularly resistant to opening up about psychological or emotional issues, he says. “They grow up in communities where you are not supposed to be vulnerable, you’re not supposed to show any outward fear or emotion, that you’re affected by these things,” he says. “The challenge is, these resources do exist but there are cultural misgivings about seeking help that way.” For people who may have witnessed a violent crime in their own community, a lack of financial resources means they are stuck in the place where they suffered their trauma.
“Let’s say something happens in or around your apartment building and you see it happen and you don’t have the means to move and the perpetrators haven’t been caught. You’re stuck in that same neighbourhood,” McMurrich says.
“One of the things that we want to be able to do is help people feel a sense of safety and control, but when you can’t remove that person from that environment, it’s very difficult.”
People who witness violent crimes and other tragic events can suffer serious emotional and psychological distress