The Australian Red Cross is sending psychological first aid counsellors to a small South Australian community to help residents grappling with a car crash which killed three members of a local family on the weekend.
A 16-year-old was charged with causing death by dangerous driving after Saturday's head-on crash on the Princes Highway, west of Mount Gambier.
Well-known Millicent residents Ned and Nan Walker, and their daughter Sue Skeer, died at the scene.
Red Cross volunteers will provide a community outreach day at Acky's Deli at Millicent tomorrow to help community members affected by the incident.
Australian Red Cross south-east regional services manager David Walshaw said the incident was "a tragedy" the community would "struggle with" in the days and week ahead.
Mr Walshaw said the Red Cross supports Australian communities during "collective trauma events".
"[They] are not disasters in their own right, but they're … either unexpected, have a high profile or fear factor, affect the social fabric, or change people's understandings of their environment," he said.
"And these events, such as this one has, create large amounts of media coverage that can cause mass confusion, fear or … an outpouring of grief, horror, anger, or sadness."
Mr Walshaw said the Red Cross' role is to provide "emotional, practical and psychosocial support", as well as mobilising the community to help each other.
The trained volunteers will be conducting two sessions on Tuesday in Millicent 10:00am-2:00pm, and another 2:00pm-6:00pm.
"[Acky's Deli] have provided us with a private area off the side of their coffee shop and we do that because [it's] central in the town, it gives us an opportunity to provide tea or coffee or cold drinks for those people that may be attending, and it is a gathering point for people," Mr Walshaw said.
"We will offer people the support that they need to help them get through. We'll assess the people that come in and refer them on to other services if they require."
He said the sessions are open to "anyone that wants to come in".
"The important thing for people to be aware of is these volunteers are highly trained in this area. We've had very many of them in recent times, visit similar circumstances," he said.
"Their role really is to promote calm, hope … and safety, but also to help people support one another in practical ways and to help people understand and manage their emotional reactions which will vary over the next few days and weeks."
Mr Walshaw said he suspected the Red Cross will hold more sessions for the Millicent community.
"We'll assess community needs," he said.
"In the days and weeks ahead we will be there again assisting people that may need it."
Family will be sorely missed by footy community
The Mid South Eastern Football League has extended its condolences to the families affected by the crash.
Ned and Nan Walker were heavily involved in the league, and the Walker Medal for the A-grade best and fairest runner-up has been awarded each year since 1978.
President Peter Mitchell said Ned, Nan, and Sue would be "sorely missed".
"We're all hurting a bit, and I know they're [the family is] hurting a lot and will for quite some time," Mr Mitchell said.
"I wish the family all the best in trying to work through the grieving process.
"It's a thing that happens in life. But when it cuts short something unnecessarily it seems unfair and it's pretty tough."
