MUSC-based center provides support following Minneapolis Catholic school shooting

Psychologist Alyssa Rheingold, Ph.D., has some advice for people struggling with their emotions after a shooting that killed an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old while they were at a Mass at a Catholic school.

“I think often after mass violence, even in places that we expect to be safe and sacred, like places of worship and even schools, we sometimes try to make sense, and I don't think we'll ever make sense of why these things occur,” she said.

“But I think we can lean into making meaning for ourselves from the perspective of what's important in our life and doing things that matter. That's where I would go during the sadness, helplessness, fear and anxiety. Yes, we need to validate and acknowledge our emotions and reactions. How do we still embrace and live a fulfilling life, and do we use these types of situations to guide that? I think that's the direction we can focus on. That is what we have control over.”

She has plenty of experience in considering such things. Rheingold serves as director of Response, Recovery and Resilience at the National Mass Violence Center based at the Medical University of South Carolina. It’s a federally-funded program that studies the impact of mass violence on mental health, gathers data on what works best to help the people affected and provides resources in the immediate aftermath and beyond. 

MUSC was selected as the site for the center two years after the murders of nine people at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston. MUSC, which also hosts the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, provided immediate care to those directly affected by the Mother Emanuel murders and the broader community. 

Rheingold said that experience was part of the reason the center submitted a proposal to start the National Mass Violence Center. Another factor: some of MUSC’s faculty members had a history of working clinically with survivors of traumatic loss and homicide and had conducted research on mass violence.

So when news broke last week about the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church, the center was ready to immediately put together a document tailored to helping the people affected. It includes resources for educators, parents, caregivers, victims, survivors and other community members. 

It also includes:

• A link to the Minnesota Crime Victims Reimbursement Program.
• A description of the free Transcend NMVC app, which is designed to reduce the risk of developing problems and help with recovery.
• Survivor-to-survivor tips for recovery and resiliency.

The National Mass Violence Center has established connections across the country that it can reach quickly after an incident such as the Minneapolis shootings. “We have 20 different national partnering organizations and networks,” Rheingold said.

“We push out our resources to our network. So for instance, the National Governor's Association is one of our partners. The U.S. Conference for Mayors is one of our partners. They will then push that to their stakeholders,” she continued.

“The American Hospital Association is another one of our partners, so they'll push it out to the hospitals in that area that they have contact with. So we lean on a lot of our partners to cast a wide net to push out information to hopefully get to state and local folks.”

One of those partners helped ensure that the city of Minneapolis linked to the National Mass Violence Center’s resources on its web page about the shooting. But Rheingold knows the impact of such a violent incident can reach well beyond a city’s borders. 

“I think after these types of events, it can bring up feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. I think allowing ourselves to validate those emotions and those reactions and at the same time looking for those signs of hope, looking for the helpers,” she said.

“In these types of circumstances, there are many who step up to serve and to be of support. And so sometimes we need to look around us for those helpers and those heroes. And just hugging on our own family a little bit tighter for support too.”