Grenfell: Hundreds of traumatised survivors drop out of therapy amid housing concerns in year since fire, figures reveal

Hundreds of people thought to be traumatised by the fire at Grenfell Tower have dropped out of therapy in the year since the blaze, new NHS figures have shown.

Grenfell health and wellbeing adults service manager Ross O’Brien said the local community was still in a “crisis period” and warned ongoing problems rehousing survivors were harming their abilities to recover psychologically.

He expressed concern the inquiry was re-traumatising survivors and said a deeply felt desire to seek justice after the fire that killed 72 people was slowing some people’s recovery.

He also acknowledged the backgrounds of staff at the service did not “mirror” that of the community they served, but said it was working with community liaison officers to try to engage those affected by the tragedy.

Some 2,006 adults have been referred to the Grenfell Tower therapy service for post-traumatic stress in the year since the fire, 300 of whom have been sent on to other services, NHS figures showed.

But only 903 of the remaining 1,706 were in or had completed therapy, leaving 803 people who appeared to have dropped out. Total withdrawal figures were not recorded by the health service, although 325 of those 803 were confirmed to have pulled out after attending one therapy session. They were deemed “not ready”.

A year after the fire “we still feel like we’re in the crisis period”, Mr O’Brien said. “We’ve got a concentrated cohort of residents that are waiting to be rehoused – they’re still not rehoused. Because of that, and because of the inquiry, they aren’t anywhere near where they would normally be if they were, say, in a terrorist bombing.

“In order to move forward, they’re looking to the future for things to calm down and to be stable and get into new accommodation so they can concentrate on trying to get their lives back on track.”

Some 69 of the 203 households from Grenfell Tower are still living in hotels following the fire, while 52 more are living in temporary accommodation, according to the latest statistics released by the council. The majority have accepted an offer of a permanent home, but many survivors have said the council has not told them when they can move in.

“We’ve had lots of referrals and we’ve had lots of people start therapy, but we’ve had more people than we would expect drop out early,” Mr O’Brien said.

He said many people had deferred treatment and come back to them several months later, meaning the service had brought in a follow-up procedure.

“We’ll go back to them in three or six months time and say, how are you coping now? Because post-traumatic stress disorder commonly manifests itself when everything starts to calm down,” he added.

“That’s when people start to get flashbacks. That’s when people start to get sleepless nights. It feels quite odd because they feel they’re moving on with their life, but it’s when the brain starts to feel safe enough that it can start to deal with the stuff that’s happened that we start to get the onset of PTSD.”

The Grenfell mental health service was expecting another wave of referrals in the immediate aftermath of the inquiry, he said, but added that the community would need mental health support extending further into the future.

The Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust said it had spent £4.1m on mental health services in the last financial year and predicts it will spend £6.5m more in the year to April 2019.

The continuing danger posed by the Grenfell Tower fire to the mental health of Kensington residents was addressed by Muslim Aid in a review of the response to the disaster published in May.

“One of the most widespread and deep-seated challenges is around mental health and its multiple complex manifestations,” the report said. “There is concern that certain groups may be overlooked, such as older men who are culturally not comfortable airing their feelings, young Muslims who do not attend the mosque, or people from smaller minority communities.”

Mr O’Brien admitted the backgrounds of staff at the Grenfell mental health service did not match the north Kensington community demographic, but said they had hired engagement workers to try to help meet their needs.

“What you find in the UK is we’ve got a disproportionate amount of female therapists – they are generally middle class and they generally don’t have that many language abilities,” he said.

“Despite our best efforts to recruit staff from different backgrounds or particular language skills, they’re not out there. The service that we created has got highly trained excellent trauma specialists working with forced migration, torture, rape or victims of traumatic incidents like this, but they don’t mirror the community they serve.

“Rather than us saying, ‘We’re from your culture’, we’re regularly training up the staff to be competent to deliver therapy and to understand the nuances of different cultures.”

The NHS Grenfell Outreach Team provides free, confidential help on 020 8962 4393 (10am to 8pm).