Psychological support can be of little help to people who have no home or no body to mourn, psychiatrist Dr Lynne Jones says

The Old Chapel in the St Charles Centre for Health and Wellbeing in west London is no longer solely a place of worship. But for attendees of a workshop on how to support survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire, one of the carefully stencilled Beatitudes on the wall still resonates powerfully. “Blessed are those that mourn,” it reads. “For they shall be comforted.”

Whatever the beliefs of those attending the free Doctors of the World session, entitled “Grief, loss and disaster: how can we help?”, it is a maxim they are steadfastly trying to follow. But what soon becomes clear is that the path towards comfort for Grenfell survivors begins not with professional psychological assistance, but with sympathy and the provision of the essentials they have lost.

Dr Lynne Jones, a psychiatrist with extensive experience of working in emergency settings, is leading the session as a volunteer. She asks the dozen or so attendees what helped them at the most difficult time in their lives. The group – which includes Doctors of the World volunteers, as well as charity workers and local healthcare professionals, some of whom are working directly with survivors – offers suggestions. Someone to move in and help with practical things, suggests one. Someone who gave me agency, says another. Someone to cry with.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dr Lynne Jones leading the workshop at the St Charles Centre for Health and Wellbeing. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

When their list is complete, one thing is missing: formal counselling. The undoubted value of professional help was emphasised on Monday when the head of the London fire brigade, Dany Cotton, revealed she was receiving counselling to deal with the trauma of the blaze, and said she was concerned for the wellbeing of her firefighters. But Jones says something more fundamental has to come first.

“Comfort from friends comes up repeatedly, but in the many times I have done this workshop, no one ever says professional psychological support,” says Jones. “People do know how to help, we are all capable of being the good neighbour, but they might need help doing so. I am just trying to remind people of their natural skills.”

Jones, the author of Outside the Asylum: A Memoir of War, Disaster and Humanitarian Psychiatry, stresses that although a shoulder to cry on is vital and welcome, it is far from the only need survivors have in a post-disaster scenario.

At least 80 people are believed to have died in the fire in Grenfell Tower in west London on 14 June. Many are still to be formally identified; firefighters have warned that the ferocity of the blaze means identification is a painful, painstaking process.



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“People’s practical needs need to be met – access to justice, secure housing and the ability to grieve,” Jones says. “If you are grieving, there is no more stressful situation than not having a body. How do you mourn someone whose body is missing? How do you get rid of that tiny hope? And today we heard how difficult it is for people who have had no formal identification of those they have lost, and that is leaving them in a form of limbo.”

The other thing severely stressed people need, she says, is security and consistency – including a home they can call their own. In the aftermath of the fire, the UK prime minister, Theresa May, said she had “fixed a deadline of three weeks for everybody affected to be found a home nearby”. That claim was later clarified by the communities secretary, Sajid Javid, who said the deadline was for every survivor to have received an offer of a temporary home.



But last week, Kensington and Chelsea council admitted that the vast majority of those who escaped the fire – about 200 people from 158 households – remained in hotels. More than two months after the disaster, no family has yet secured permanent accommodation.

“In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, the best things we can do to reduce psychological distress are usually practical. These are the things that matter: continuity, structure, routine, having your basic needs met, having access to information and justice, and being able to bury and mourn your dead,” Jones says. “Having shelter is fundamental, as is keeping people connected to those they love and their community.”

She fears that the longer families are left in limbo, the more likely it is that longer-term psychological problems will develop. “If people’s psychological health is to be protected, these are the things that need to be done,” Jones says. “Doing them will reduce the number of people who need more help later on.”

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During the group discussion – in which participants are given tips on how to help those who are grieving, understanding and recognising stress, and taking care of themselves – one participant speaks of the public inquiry set up in the wake of the disaster. They say some former Grenfell residents are deeply unhappy about the recent revelation that the terms of the inquiry mean it will examine the actions of Kensington and Chelsea council, but will not deal with broader questions of social housing policy.

The terms of the public inquiry have been widened from only looking at the cause of the fire and why it spread so fast. But the sense that justice is being and will be obstructed could inhibit recovery, suggests Jones.

“I sometimes feel like the push towards the psychological is a kind of displacement activity from dealing with the profound social issues that Grenfell raises,” she says. “You can’t divorce the social from the psychological.”



As the workshop attendees file out under the chapel’s soaring oak beams, another Beatitude catches the eye: “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”