Webinar recording - Helping families to cope: specific moments

In this webinar held on Wednesday 17 March 2021, the ICRC Missing Persons Project, together with colleagues working on mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), accompaniers, forensic experts and families and national societies’ representatives from around the world discussed the topic of ‘Helping families to cope: specific moments’. The panelists discussed some of the questions triggered by the previous webinar on ‘Forensics and the missing’ regarding the psychological impact that the search and identification process can have on families, how to manage expectations, and how families and practitioners better prepare for it emotionally. The webinar focused in particular on how best to support families during "specific moments”, for example when families are asked to provide (physical) information about their relative (the ante-mortem data collection or ante-mortem interview), give a blood/saliva sample for DNA analysis, are present at the recovery of the remains and/or are asked to look at remains and personal belongings, receive the announcement of their loved one’s death, or receive the remains of their loved one.