Forum on mall shootings rescheduled for Friday

Public meeting Region 6 Behavioral Healthcare and the Omaha Metro Medical Response System will host a public meeting to discuss the Westroads Mall shooting today from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Convention Center at 72nd and Grover streets. The meeting is part of a plan to help Omaha and surrounding communities deal with the grief and loss associated with such an intense disaster.

An employee/student forum about the Dec. 5 Westroads Mall shooting set for Thursday has been rescheduled for today at noon in the Eppley Science Hall Amphitheater.

The forum was called off Thursday because of weather-related travel delays.

During the forum, psychologist Robin Gurwitch, Ph.D., and psychiatrist Daniel Nelson, M.D., will present “Responding to Crisis in the Medical Setting: Post Westroads Shootings.”

Drs. Gurwitch and Nelson, both members of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement, will discuss topics such as:

• Recognizing emotional reactions after a crisis;
  
• Ideas for building resiliency in times of stress; and
  
• Understanding the behavioral health needs of patients and making appropriate referrals.

Both Drs. Gurwitch and Nelson have lent their respective talents and expertise to most of the major disasters that have occurred in the United States in the past 12 years.

The forum is sponsored by UNMC, Region 6 Behavioral Health Care, and the Omaha Metro Medical Response System (OMMRS) Behavioral Health Subcommittee.