I don’t think you should do it as a matter of course. I think you should carefully watch a traumatized kid and see if he or she is showing unusual symptoms and then intervene.
This bringing counselors on for everyone at the first moment is, to my mind, a self-fulfilling prophecy: we expect you to be traumatized so you will be. It is the same principle as when a kid falls down. You as a parent often react one of two ways: You rush to the kid and cry “are you hurt?” “are you okay?” or you matter-of-factly say something like, “did you bite my floor?” Believe me, you get two different reactions from the kid most of the time.
Yes, I have dealt with traumatized kids, my own. Yes, I had classmates die. Don’t assume that every traumatic event will always result in trauma to the kid. We are more resilient than that and the way we make assumptions will have a tendency to either increase or decrease PTSD. Nightmares are a normal part of life. So are daylight flashbacks. Treat the debilitating problems but don’t assume debilitation or don’t lead people to expect themselves to be debilitated. Either way, the won’t disappoint you.
“I don’t think you should do it as a matter of course. I think you should carefully watch a traumatized kid and see if he or she is showing unusual symptoms and then intervene.”
Yes, in every case, it should be done as a matter of course. That’s the point of a crisis team, to watch and be available. If they aren’t there, they can’t watch.