Development of a multicomponent survey of experiences of tragedy-based and fear-based trauma in COVID-19 healthcare professionals

The way we use language and narrate traumatic events can have a major impact on how we come to process and make sense of them, and how we can help people going through these experiences. This paper suggests that narrating certain types of loss-based trauma events, particularly those linked to health and death (as in COVID-19) can be regarded as forms of human tragedy, which links to more ancient ways of addressing life's suffering, including the importance of shared compassion and communal grieving. This is an initial exploration of potential experiences of HCPs that can distinguish concepts of tragedy-based trauma from fear-based trauma. Clarity on these variations can offer opportunities for new insights into sources of distress, and therapeutic interventions.