Message in Solidarity and Call for
urgent support for burn victims of Bucharest fire accident
On October 31, 2015 a
fire engulfed a night club in Bucharest, Romania killing 27 people immediately
and injuring hundreds. Since then the death toll has risen to more than 50. IFSW
Europe wishes to extend our sympathy and condolences to the victims and their
families.
We also wish to express
our solidarity with our Romanian social work colleagues who are caring for the
families of those victims still hospitalized. In times of tragedy social
workers provide the emotional and practical support the families need to
continue functioning. Social
workers are trained to assess and respond to changing needs. These needs might
include help with administrative issues, mediation with hospital personnel and
the concrete needs of families who are away from their homes for long periods:
accommodation, food, clothing, etc.
The large number of
victims has created a unique situation requiring international social work
cooperation. The Rumanian health
administration started some days ago to transfer patients to different
specialized clinics all over Europe because they cannot provide adequate
treatment for so many cases. This
may be is the only chance for at least some of the victims to survive.
Those patients going to
other countries are accompanied by one family member at government expense. The
Romanian authorities take care of many organizational problems, but these
family members need individual, local social work support - somebody who is
available for them during the crisis situation, who answers their questions,
helps them immediately with everything they need while staying with their
relatives.
In Bucharest, the Association
Pro Social Work - ASproAS
has set up a team of social workers to support the relatives in the hospitals
and outside. The Romanian association has contacted the member IFSW
associations in Austria, Germany,
Switzerland, UK and Israel and
asked that they make sure that local, medical social workers are helping those
family members who are in a strange country and probably don't speak the
language. Our Romanian colleagues
are then able to provide updates to the family members in Romania.
ASproAS still needs contact persons in
the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Norway to help care for the families
of the victims hospitalized there. It is preferable for medical social workers
to be the contact person or, at least, to be able to identify the appropriate
social workers in the hospitals that have accepted the Romanian fire
victims.
IFSW Europe calls to our
member organizations and national associations of social workers from these
countries to connect directly with ASproAS
(asproas2013@gmail.com) in order
to provide the best support to the patients and their
families.
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