Psychological screening of adults and young people following the Manchester Arena incident

Abstract

Background Terrorist attacks have increased globally since the late 1990s with clear evidence of psychological distress across both adults and children and young people (CYP). After the Manchester Arena terrorist attack, the Resilience Hub was established to identify people in need of psychological and psychosocial support. Aims To examine the severity of symptoms and impact of the programme. Method The hub offers outreach, screening, clinical telephone triage and facilitation to access evidenced treatments. People were screened for trauma, depression, generalised anxiety and functioning who registered at 3, 6 and 9 months post-incident. Baseline scores were compared between screening groups (first screen at 3, 6 or 9 months) in each cohort (adult, CYP), and within groups to compare scores at 9 months. Results There were significant differences in adults' baseline scores across screening groups on trauma, depression, anxiety and functioning. There were significant differences in the baseline scores of CYP across screening groups on trauma, depression, generalised anxiety and separation anxiety. Paired samples t-tests demonstrated significant differences between baseline and follow-up scores on all measures for adults in the 3-month screening group, and only depression and functioning measures for adults in the 6-month screening group. Data about CYP in the 3-month screening group, demonstrated significant differences between baseline and follow-up scores on trauma, generalised anxiety and separation anxiety. Conclusions These findings suggest people who register earlier are less symptomatic and demonstrate greater improvement across a range of psychological measures. Further longitudinal research is necessary to understand changes over time. Declaration of interest None.

Psychological impact of spontaneous memorials: A narrative review.

“…Following the Manchester Arena attack (2017), members of the archiving team met with clinical staff at the Manchester Resilience Hub (a service set up to support people with mental health-related problems following the arena incident; French et al, 2019). Group meetings offered staff guidance and support on how to process their emotions and look after their well-being during the archiving process.…”

The psychosocial response to a terrorist attack at Manchester Arena, 2017: a process evaluation

“…A clinical outcomes evaluation is presented elsewhere [ 50 ]. The objectives of this process evaluation were: A logic model describing the resources and planning actions, necessary to implement parts of the seven-step model; A process evaluation relating procedures [ 51 ] and context [ 52 ] to programmatic outcomes (numbers screened and in receipt of support); An evaluation of how well Hub practices were embedded and sustained, using Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) [ 53 , 54 ], a sociological theory of the middle range [ 55 , 56 ].…”

Cost effectiveness of interventions for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders following major incidents including terrorism and pandemics

“…Evaluations of those programmes have concluded that screen-and-treat approaches may be a clinically effective approach for addressing mental health needs following major incidents (Brewin et al, 2010a;Cyhlarova, Knapp, & Mays, 2019;French et al, 2019;Gobin et al, 2018;Kerslake Report, 2018).…”

“…The reasons for this are well-understood: a combination of low priority at strategic planning and policy development level, general low levels of public understanding, poor recognition in primary care, and the avoidance that is one of the defining symptoms. In recent years, health systems have begun to address this problem by instituting proactive outreach to affected populations, often coupled with screening and signposting into evidence-based treatments (Brewin et al, 2008; Dyb et al, 2014; French et al, 2019; Maslow et al, 2015). In this paper we report the first systematic attempt to assess the cost-effectiveness of this approach.…”