March 21, 2000
Harborview program teams with FBI to help victims of bank robberies
With as many as 30 bank robberies occurring in Washington state every month, the psychological effects on tellers can be devastating. To help them cope, the Harborview Center for Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress (HCSATS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began the Bank Personnel Group in early 1999, the first program of its kind in the nation.
“Bank personnel who attend this group are generally very loyal, long-term employees,” says Janet Brodsky, MSW, lead social worker for the Bank Personnel Group. “They are accustomed to handling stress well and staying calm. After an armed robbery, they often report nightmares, feel more vulnerable or trapped behind the counter, and in general find their ability to cope with stress is compromised.”
The Bank Personnel Group meets monthly at the HCSATS and gives bank employees access to immediate support and strategies for coping and recovering. Many participants have expressed instant relief when they meet others who share the same history and symptoms. So far, all the participants have been women.
One woman experienced 19 robberies in 15 years, but it was only after a friend was killed during one of them that she sought help. Another teller saw such a strong resemblance between the physical characteristics of the armed robber who held her at gunpoint and one of her friends that she later found it difficult to maintain the friendship. Although she was initially nervous about attending the group, she says, “the similarities between my own experience and other group members? experiences were astonishing and helpful.”
The FBI reports that there were 334 bank robberies in the state of Washington in 1999. These statistics place the Seattle Division of the FBI as the third largest division for number of bank robberies out of the FBI?s 56 national field offices. In 116 of Washington?s robberies, subjects either brandished a weapon or inferred that they were carrying one. It was confirmed that in 30 of these robberies the subject was wielding a deadly weapon.
According to Kera Wulbert, Victim-Witness Coordinator for the FBI, the FBI?s Seattle Division was inundated by requests from concerned bank managers to provide trauma debriefings following robberies for their affected bank personnel. “Bank tellers have to return to the scene of the crime every day and remain professional,” she says. “The Seattle Division recognized a void in available counseling services for this population of crime victims and sought to create new resources for them within King County. In developing the Bank Personnel Group, the collaborative goal of the FBI and Harborview, is to help innocent victims regain stability in the aftermath of experiencing a violent crime.”
Wulbert and Brodsky recently presented information about their program to bank managers from Washington and Oregon in an effort to encourage managers to replicate this model around the Northwest.
