Violaine-Patricia Galbert is president of the Association of French Victims of the 2004 Tsunami, is an expert working with the Army, a lieutenant-colonel in the reserves, and is advisor to the Army chief of staff for the psychological support of military families. In 2015, 2016, and 2017 she was consulted in France, then in London, to treat victims of various attacks.
Since 2012, France has endured 24 attacks that have resulted in 259 deaths and 836 victims who survived. Though there has been a great deal of focus on the trauma of survivors, in order to provide support for them, it is only very recently that the psychic trauma experienced by the families and friends of those victims has been recognized. Faced with the unthinkable that has befallen one of their own, those close to the victims do not escape unscathed. As a loved one, how can you understand what the victim of an attack is going through? Is it normal to suffer from an attack that you haven’t personally experienced? How can you accept that you, yourself, can suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? Confronted with a victim with physical or psychic wounds, what can you do in the first hours, the first days, to support the victim? In the long term, the attack has repercussions. How can you live day-to-day with the victim? How can you overcome the upheavals resulting from the trauma and envision a tomorrow?
Very concrete data, advice from a specialist in the treatment of victims and the families and friends of victims of an attack. Each chapter includes a summary checklist enabling the family member or friend of a victim of an attack to assess his progress in the process of assistance and support.