The psychological toll - Erebus disaster

Few of those involved in the recovery and identification of victims from the Erebus crash could have been truly prepared for the task ahead. As Jim Morgan, the leader of the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team, recalled:

it was very difficult for our young police officers who may have handled the occasional sudden death to be confronted with 280 [sic] sudden deaths all at once. The young married people who were able to go home at the end of their shift and talk about other things, they didn't talk about the horrors of the mortuary, managed to cope quite well, but the young single people who returned to their flats which were largely unoccupied suffered some quite bad psychological trauma. Hear and read this interview.

Following the disaster, psychologist Tony Taylor of Victoria University of Wellington established that personnel involved in the gruesome tasks following a disaster were themselves victims of the event. The trauma they suffered meant they deserved specialist support and treatment.

Recognition was given to the post-traumatic stress suffered by those involved in Operation Overdue. Counselling was offered to all who wanted it, and the debriefing report specifically noted the need for officers in command of such operations to know how to recognise and deal with signs of stress in staff. It took several years more for psychological support to become standard practice in the New Zealand Police.