Observations From a Cyclone Stress/Trauma Assignment in the Cook Islands

Abstract

An inter-governmental stress/trauma assignment after a cyclone is described, in which the main functions were to provide professional advice and assistance to the indigenous care-givers, and to make such recommendations for the continuing care of the primary victims as seemed appropriate in the cross-cultural circumstances. The outcome showed that the assumptions and techniques of trauma reduction that were developed in the Western World could be adapted and applied elsewhere, but that questions need to be raised about the continuing attribution of natural phenomena by locals there to moral transgression rather than to forces that can now be explained by science. Although the community showed a remarkable resilience in the face of tragedy and destruction, it is suggested that it might have been better done with New Testament instead of Old Testament pronouncements.