Hostage taking in Hamburg
Trauma expert: Kidnapped girl needs a lot of attention
The hostage taker (l) kneels on the ground with his child – a police officer brings a blanket. photo
© Jonas Walzberg/dpa
The hostage-taking had a happy ending. A trauma expert explains how the four-year-old girl could find her way back to normality.
“It is crucial that support is provided so that the experience can be processed without psychological consequences,” said the deputy director of the Clinic for Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy for Children and Adolescents at the Berlin Charité to the German Press Agency.
Intensive support
However, it is also important to observe the child carefully in order to quickly identify and treat possible psychological complications. The support and support does not necessarily have to come from professional therapists at first: it could also be the mother or another close caregiver who takes intensive care of the girl and gives her even more attention than usual, said Winter.
Not every child develops a psychological disorder after a serious traumatic event. “About 15 percent of children are affected,” said Winter. For example, a four-year-old child could develop separation anxiety disorder. Psychotherapeutic treatment would then be needed, says Winter.
Post-traumatic stress disorder
The development of post-traumatic stress disorder would be particularly stressful. “If the child keeps replaying the situation for weeks and can’t get out of it, I would seek professional help at a trauma clinic,” says the head of the child protection and trauma clinic at the Charité.
“Often just a few hours of treatment are enough for the experience to be processed and stored to some extent,” says the child and adolescent psychiatrist and psychotherapist. In the case of post-traumatic stress disorder, those affected would not have saved what they had experienced and would constantly have the feeling that they were still in the situation.
The conversation
“It would also be nice to talk to the child again about what they experienced, to take it up again, to put it into words,” says Winter. The mother or another close caregiver can also do this if she feels able to do so.
“It is also important that the child gets back into a normal everyday life and a routine. This conveys security and stability,” says Winter. It is also important to visit daycare as soon as possible. There, however, the child must be treated as normally as possible so that it is well integrated and does not take on a special role. There are also daycare consultants who come to the facilities and train the staff in such cases.