It might have been too soon for people to be ready to talk about how the August 1 shootings in Stratford have left them feeling, but at the very least people who are suffering know there is help out there.
A community event was held August 29 at the Stratford Rotary Complex, bringing together Canadian Mental Health Association Huron Perth and Victim Services Huron Perth as well as various counsellors from across the community, with the goal of helping people deal with the fallout of the shooting that saw two people killed and two others sent to hospital with serious injuries.
Inspector Charlie Swartwood, the chaplain for Stratford Police Service, talked about the need to show people that there are means to help themselves when they’re ready.
“I’m not sure how many people knew about what options they had available to them, but it also helps us (CMHA, Victim Services and others) to be on the same page,” he said. “Tonight we had the key people from the community in the same room, showing the community we’re here when they’re ready to talk.”
Swartwood didn’t really know how to approach the idea of a timetable for healing wounds like this other than to say he knows that people are hurting and they don’t know how to make it stop. He talked about how one of his friends lives in the Bradshaw Drive area - neither he nor many of his neighbours were aware of the community event, making it difficult to offer any kind of grieving timeline.
“From my perspective, I’m just going to try and build on that relationship and do whatever I can to build a bridge to that part of our community,” he said. “The people in that neighbourhood are experiencing the worst time of their lives and if you don’t know them, they’re not going to talk to us. So I want to work to bridge that gap.”
It’s not just residents that Swartwood is keeping his eye on, either. Police had not dealt with a murder in Stratford for more than 20 years, and while officers are trained to deal with this type of crisis they still need to be considered when talking about the emotional fallout from an incident like this.
“They’re trained to respond and deal with these kinds of situations, but how will it hit them a month from now when things have quieted down and they have more time to process it,” he said. “Police have a great support system inside, and having an officer open up if they’re struggling is the best support they can give themselves. They know they’ll be well supported.”
So as the city continues to put itself back together, Swartwood wants people to remember that their neighbours are good people and it’s by relying on one another that the community as a whole makes its way through this.
“You don’t have to go overboard, but just remember that you’re not in this alone,” he said. “Because of my multi-faith background, I find most communities are built on the principle of teaching to love your neighbour as you love yourself. I think that’s a good place to start.”
