Australasian Update, Autumn 2007

Welcome to the Dart Centre’s Australasian Update. At the time of writing, the inquiry into the death of one of the Balibo Five is under way at the Glebe Coroner’s Court in Sydney. This morning, listening to the radio I heard one of the family members of the ‘Five’ speaking about the ongoing grief of their loved one killed in East Timor over 30 years ago.

The Balibo Five were doing what journalists do — attempting to inform the world of a significantly violent, internationally relevant event. As a consequence they were murdered.

As we read in this edition of Australasian Update, colleagues recently had to confront the death of Morgan Mellish and the major injuries sustained by Cynthia Banham, along with the deaths of 19 others and injuries to many more passengers on the Garuda crash in Indonesia, some of them well known to journalists around the country.

We extend our condolences to all who continue to grieve their loss through death and injury. Managing grief is not an easy task. It often continues for extended periods and the concept of ‘closure’ around grief is a misnomer.

Certainly grief will take on a different shape with the passage of time, but to continue to feel loss is a natural phenomenon. What we know about grief is that it is complicated by factors such as violence, manner of death, deception, neglect and unanswered questions around the death.

Grief following violent death is generally associated with negligence or human intent, which leads to the inevitable investigations, such as a Coroner's Court to determine the locus of responsibility.

This rarely follows natural death and means that the grief process is further exacerbated by the deceased being identified as a “victim”.

For those grieving, there may even be a sense of revenge or retribution which does not follow natural death.

Violent death is the most common form of death for the under-40s — Source: the US-based Violent Death Bereavement Society, online at www.vdbs.org ) — which means that those grieving will tend to be younger parents, siblings, family members and friends.

This also means that the working population will tend to be exposed to accidental deaths, suicides and other violent deaths more than they will natural deaths.

This newsletter discusses many options of self care in the face of trauma, whether grief caused by violent death, or other forms of trauma response.

The principles are the same — maintaining support of family, friends and social networks; speaking about feelings and not bottling them up; steering clear of substance abuse and seeking professional help if things become overwhelming.

Working towards some form of acceptance is also necessary. The words are easy, but the experience is painfully difficult.

Health practitioner Dr Ted Rynearson writes in Retelling Violent Death: “Uncertainty and ambiguity are inherent in meaningless violence. Accept that violent death is a riddle that will never be answered — final answers or resolutions are impossible. The goal then is to accept the ultimate uncertainty and instead reconnect with the rapture of being alive.”