ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the psychological services provided for the victims of large-scale disasters, and attempts to place services for the survivors of road traffic accidents and their relatives in that context. The Traumatic Stress Project carried out a study for the Department of Health through the Department of Forensic Psychiatry, which was aimed at examining the extent to which English regional health authorities had made provision for psychological needs in their post-disaster planning. The role of mental health services and social services in relation to road accident survivors and victims’ families should be to provide a flexible comprehensive service which can be augmented at fairly short notice after both ‘minor’ and ‘major’ disaster. There is an urgent need for both research and training in these activities, which cannot be organised properly while psychological support is seen only in terms of responses to major large-scale public disasters.
