1. The crisis help after the mass stabbing in Turku, Finland
Salli Saari, PhD
Leader of the Finnish Red Cross Preparedness Team of psychologists

2. Description of the event
On August 18:th 2017 a mass stabbing took place in Turku, a city with inhabitants
The perpetrator was a young man from Morocco
He was an asylum seeker, who had got a negative decision in his application
This happened two days after Barcelona terrorist attack
The mass stabbing took place in a very lively market place at 4 p.m., when people were coming from their work for shopping or going home
2 died, 8 were injured, some very seriously
Perpetrator was injured
The police shot him in the leg three minutes after the alarm

3. Special aspects of the event
The victims were selected randomly
This meant that there were many, who thought they could have been victim
They thought they could have died
There were a lot of eyewitnesses
They saw horrendous things
Many helped the victims, gave first aid
Many were belonging in two or three of these groups
Most of them had very strong reactions: freezing, horror, hate, many physical symptoms etc.

4. Psychological first aid
Hotline
Red Cross volunteers and social workers in emergency service as responders
More than 200 calls, of them 110 wanted that they will be called back by crisis workers
Long and difficult discussions
Crisis center in University Hospital of Turku
Mainly for family members of the deceased and injured
Difficult to come, accompanied by a guard
Very few visited
Red Cross volunteers met people on the market place, on the streets of Turku
140 volunteers took part in psychological first aid
2700 contacts in two weeks

5. It could had been me and/or eyewitnesses group
Knowledge from earlier disasters:
Strong reactions, difficult traumatization
Great need for help
Of those 110 who wanted a call back of the crisis worker
40 were satisfied with this phone discussion and follow up call
20 wanted to discuss their experience in a group session
50 were organized one or more individual meetings with a psychologist

6. Group sessions of eyewitnesses and/or it could have been me
The experiences of normal debriefing session for persons, who do not know each other before the event, are not good
A new kind of group meeting which included
Sharing of the experience concentrating on the facts
Processing with EMDR
Stabilization
Six such groups ( 20 persons altogether)
Small groups
3-4 members
Experienced leaders in the group
Very good experiences of these group meetings

7. It could had be me and/or eyewitnesses Individual meetings
49 persons were organized an individual meeting
These meetings lasted 1½-2 hours
The persons had very strong both physical and psychological reactions
Many had dissociation
In some, the earlier traumatic experiences were activated
not been in any therapy before this
EMDR was used in almost all sessions
Some had even two or three sessions and a follow up call
No one needed medication
About 10% of them need long-term trauma therapy
This work was done by experienced psychologists, many trauma therapists with long experience of acute crisis work

8. Special implications
Many of the latest terrorist attacks in Europe has this same characteristics
The victims are selected randomly
This means that there are many, who belong to these groups of eyewitnesses and/or it could have been me
They are not seeking for crisis help, because “nothing happened to them”
It is difficult to reach these people
Usually they does not get any help because there are not enough resources
This means that their symptoms become chronic
Great difficulties later in their lives
Need much psychiatric help later