Victim identification and family support in mass casualties: the Massachusetts model

The Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act of 1996 requires the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), air carriers, and the American Red Cross (ARC) to provide an integrated family assistance center to offer support to family survivors of mass casualties. A central component of post-incident response is the timely identification of victims and their personal belongings. This identification process occurs through antemortem interviews with family survivors. ARC of Massachusetts Bay determined that ARC volunteers would not play a major role in conducting antemortem interviews, and deferred primary responsibility for this task to the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCMB). This paper presents the Massachusetts model for victim identification and family support at the local level. The structure and services of this model for on-site forensic processing, the fielding of antemortem interviewers, and a comprehensive training curriculum in psychological trauma and victim identification are presented. The implications are discussed.