Bondi Beach massacre inspires new Sydney children’s trauma institute at Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick
An institute has been established to help children recover from traumatic events after a massacre at Bondi Beach and a nearby mass stabbing the previous year.
A new treatment centre will aim to help kids recover from traumatic incidents including the Bondi Beach massacre.
The NSW Institute for Pediatric Trauma will bring together specialists, researchers and clinicians to do research and deliver training on how to best help children who experience trauma.
It will be housed at the Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick, with plans for it to open within the next six months.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Two mass killings in recent years had “forever left their mark” on NSW, Health Minister Ryan Park said.
Fifteen innocent people were killed, including a 10-year-old girl, and dozens more were injured when two gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah community event at Bondi Beach in December 2015r.
A mass stabbing at a shopping centre at Bondi Junction in 2024 killed another six people, including a 38-year-old mother who was trying to protect her nine-month-old baby, who was critically injured but survived.
Guy Henry, co-director of trauma services at Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick, was involved in both incidents and helped instigate the dedicated pediatric trauma centre.
Dr Henry, who will head the institute, said while the way NSW dealt with trauma in children was good, it was not always well understood.
“Children have different physiology and anatomy, and so we need to take that into account when we manage a pediatric trauma, particularly the smaller children,” Dr Henry told AAP.
“We need to be able to educate people about that, so that when they do come across a pediatric trauma, they just don’t treat them like a small adult.”
Mr Ryan said the institute’s role was to ensure clinicians were better equipped to deal with children experiencing trauma across the state.
“We are essentially taking the skills and expertise that we have at our kid’s hospital, and then magnifying that in a ripple effect out to our other hospitals, particularly in regional areas,” he told AAP.
“We’re providing the system with the best possible chance of responding when there is one of these types of attacks ... because they’re not always going to occur near a big Sydney hospital.”
He said the experts would look to learn from events like the Bondi massacre to develop the “gold standard” of recovery for a child who has experienced a major trauma.
“This is an opportunity to have the learnings that we’ve gained from some of these mass casualty events, and then re-inform the system,” Mr Park said.
“Particularly (with) education and outreach, but also clinical care from injury and emergency treatment all the way to rehabilitation and recovery.”
The institute has been allocated $500,000 from the NSW government, and will also be funded by donations through the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation.
Lifeline 13 11 14
Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25)
