Published on: 22nd May 2023

A report shared today, called Bee the Difference, shares the experiences of young people affected by the Manchester Arena attack. The Greater Manchester Resilience Hub is still open and supporting those impacted by the attack. If you’re struggling, call 0333 009 5071 or email gm.help@nhs.net.

You can read more about the work of the Hub over the past six years below:

After the bombing, an outreach and screening process was quickly established as local mental health services did not have the capacity to assess the 15,000 plus people that attended the concert.

The Greater Manchester Resilience Hub was set up within 7 weeks following the attack with staff from all four Greater Manchester mental health trusts. It was and still is the fastest large scale mental health response to such an incident in UK history.

More than 700 individuals were supported within the first few days and then were prioritised under the psychological screening within the first few weeks, they included those people physically injured, bereaved families, and those on the police witness list that the police believed were experiencing psychological distress.

Following the then National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) PTSD guidelines (since updated to 4 weeks), we waited until 12 weeks post incident (to allow for natural recovery) to write to all ticket purchasers and via social and broadcast media, encouraging all impacted to complete some online screening tools to see how they were doing. Everyone was encouraged to call or email if they needed help.

We have supported more than 3700 individuals, more than 1000 under 18 year olds, and more than 600 families through a series of family events across the North of England and Scotland.

80% of those we supported lived outside of Manchester, including a number of international concert attendees who we also got psychological help for. Victims living in Greater Manchester also benefitted from mental health staff providing advice and guidance to schools, colleges and GPs.

We have recently supported families and witnesses during the public inquiry and the Manchester response is regarded internationally as an exemplar.