Psychosocial intervention models and outcomes after a terror disaster

Abstract

On July 22, 2011, a car bomb blast in the government quarter in Oslo killed 8, injured 209 of the 350 employees who were at work, and destroyed 1700 of the 3500 work places in the ministries. Shortly afterward, the terrorist killed 69 adolescents and young adults and injured another 110 of the 495 survivors at a summer camp on an island outside Oslo, organized by the Youth League of the ruling Labor Party. The paper describes the two disaster models that were applied in providing the preventive and therapeutic psychosocial interventions: The company/organization model for the governmental employees and a combined community and organization model for the victims of the massacre and their families. Some of the findings from the longitudinal research and outreach programs that were conducted are reported.