A Victim Support worker explains how she provides 'psychological first aid' during the most traumatic times in people's lives.
John and Beverley Cozad, survivors of the Whakaari eruption, speak at the sentencing hearing in the Environment Court, Auckland, 26 February 2024. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Victim Support's Melissa Gordon has spent more than a decade "walking beside" people who have suffered the most traumatic events in their lives.
She's been on the doorstep with a police officer to give the news everyone dreads - the death of a loved one by accident, suicide or murder.
Gordon and the victim are always strangers when they first meet but sometimes, they will see each other for years and in the most difficult circumstances - in a hospital, at the police station, in the coroner's court or at a trial.
Gordon worked on the frontline of Victim Support, progressing to head of the homicide team before taking charge of client service nationwide.
In the 12 months to June 2023, the government-funded organisation helped a record 48,677 victims of crime, suicide and other trauma. In the most extreme cases, like a homicide, Victim Support workers are among the first at the scene or alongside the police as they tell someone that their loved one has been killed.
Victim Support's Melissa Gordon has spent more than a decade "walking beside" people who have suffered the most traumatic events in their lives. Photo: Manaaki Tāngata Victim Support
In one of the most traumatic events in recent New Zealand history, the eruption of Whakaari/White Island in 2019, the organisation was giving immediate support to whanau and witnesses. That role continued until last month when victims gave statements at the trial, supported by Victim Support worker Colleen Ellis, who had been with them from the beginning.
"A lot of our support, especially at the crisis point, really you're just being present," Gordon tells The Detail in a podcast looking at the heartbreaking, sometimes dangerous role of Victim Support. "It's making sure [the victims] understand what has happened, it's part of this psychological first aid.
"If you're going to get a knock on your door and there's a police officer standing there and a Victim Support person standing there and they've just told you something terrible like a homicide has happened to your son, to your daughter, what is it you're going to want to know - [it's] 'what has happened to my loved one?'"
The support person has to be prepared for a range of reactions.
"Some people can faint, some people don't cry at all, some people could collapse, some people can get angry, the heart rate can go up, cold, hot."
Gordon recalls her most difficult case as a frontline worker, when a young man was farewelling his father.
"That emotionally hit me in the heart, I guess thinking of my own children."
She's also been at the periphery of a tense scene involving rival gangs.
"We do pretty intensive training so we're pretty aware of those situations."
Lack of technology such as cellphones made the job more dangerous in its early days 40 years ago, but today workers are dealing with higher levels of violence, says Gordon.
"Like when methamphetamine became a more prominent drug of choice, I guess. You could definitely see the increase in violence."
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