Coping with Traumatic News

[ysabetwordsmith]

 rix_scaedu tipped me to this page about coping with traumatic news.  It's an illustrated guide, but they get bonus points for inclusivity because the written instructions appear in text below the pictures.  \o/  This ties into the excellent advice from Mr. Rogers, "Look for the helpers."

Newspaper and news broadcast sites in Terramagne-America customarily have some kind of EFA section like this, and video instructions are often tacked onto the end of reports about a major tragedy.  They have more materials though -- theirs is usually broken down into subsections like "I am upset by a tragedy," "I don't like the politics," "I am offended by a scandal," "I am scared of a soup incident," etc. with a general "I am unhappy about the news" for everything else.  Under the symptoms and basic coping skills is a set of tips on how you can help.  For instance, the tragedy section would have information on aid organizations, fundraisers, volunteering, etc. while the scandal one would have stuff about virtues and gossip.  This modular format makes it easy to add individual pages for current events, like folks did with the Berettaflies in Easy City, which is how they managed to raise money and acquire butterfly-indifferent plants so quickly.  Then all they have to do is link the individual pages at the bottom of the topical pages under "Current Events." Citizens always know where they can go for help on these issues; it stays in the same place and format so it's easy to find.

This concept is replicable here for anyone who works with a vulnerable population easily upset by distressing news, any large organization that has a public relations office, any kind of emergency response organization, etc.  If you deal in things that upset people or people who get upset, then it helps to have a resource for healthy coping.  This can greatly reduce the amount of time you have to spend repeating the same information and the amount of stress caused by people freaking out.  It also engages one of the most important resilience factors: restoring a sense of control.  Helplessness causes traumatic stress.  Giving people a gentle nudge toward self-help and citizen response materials will get most of them moving forward again.  The ones who don't budge are the ones you really need to worry about, and you'll have more resources to handle the one or two people who flip into acute stress disorder if you've successfully routed the others into solving their own problems.

Comments

[technoshaman]

Well, there are certainly more than enough people doing self-help today! 250k in Chicago, 130k right here in the Emerald City, no word on DC but 30 countries around the world are in on it, from London to Antarctica (yes! All seven continents!)...

But the Empire will inevitably strike back, and we will need this. Thank you.

You're welcome!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm glad I could help.

[mdlbear]

I had to scroll down for it, but I was glad to see that there's a transcript for people using screen-readers. (Doesn't have alt text, but a screen reader will handle it properly anyway.)

One of the things I like about my employer (there are lots to dislike, but...) is the fact that they actually care about things like website and workplace accessibility.

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>I had to scroll down for it, but I was glad to see that there's a transcript for people using screen-readers. (Doesn't have alt text, but a screen reader will handle it properly anyway.)<<

I was pleased to see that, and I mentioned it because I have several vision-impaired fans who need text descriptions of images.

>>One of the things I like about my employer (there are lots to dislike, but...) is the fact that they actually care about things like website and workplace accessibility.<<

\o/ Yay! When I'm designing a page, I run it through an accessibility meter. Unfortunately I am limited by two things: the options available in the buildware, and what I can comfortably read with the eyeballs I have. The result is usually something in the "pretty good" rather than "really good" range. By the time you get all the way to the highest contrast, it usually hurts my eyes and is hard for me to navigate. I like soft color gradients -- you can see both my blogs are in shades of blue and use lighter and darker colors for navigational guidance.

Re: Yes...

[mdlbear]

Yes, they're pretty readable; I like the understated highlighting and division of space. The lack of flexibility with site builders is why I insist on building sites from scratch. (I rarely take full advantage of that flexibility -- must do something about that. Pure laziness.)

Re: Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Yes, they're pretty readable; I like the understated highlighting and division of space. The lack of flexibility with site builders is why I insist on building sites from scratch.<<

Alas, my skill is not sufficient to that cause. (See icon.)

>> (I rarely take full advantage of that flexibility -- must do something about that. Pure laziness.) <<

I've seen guidelines for accessible design and used them for inspiration. Often they have examples. I imagine this would be much more useful to someone who can build from scratch.

[earthspirits]

This is good to know.Thanks for the info and links!