BATON ROUGE - The mass shooting at the Mall of Louisiana left people inside and nearby dealing with intense emotions and trauma. The shooting injured five people and killed 17-year-old Martha Odom. She was at the mall with her friends.

Now her family, friends, and the community are coping with trauma.

Katie Fetzer said taking care of your mental health is key at a time like this.

"For some, it might look like a long road; it might be several months before they're able to really gain back that sense of safety and security. For some, it might be quicker than for others. Everybody kind of responds differently," she said.

Fetzer said people at the scene and even those watching from home may feel the impact. She said vicarious traumatization is very real.

"Think about your average child who sees a horror movie, and they have nightmares. They might have nightmares for days just from watching a horror movie. Vicarious traumatization is whenever we're traumatized by something that we either witnessed or saw on television," she said.

According to Fetzer, reaching out for help early can speed up recovery.

"Depending on the person and their family, but we just do think it's immediately something you want to have an immediate response with is just reaching out, talking with a professional to be able to process what it is that has happened, so that way it's not something that you are dwelling in the dark about alone," she said.

Former FBI agent Rob Chadwick, who has worked on active shooting cases, said events like this can weigh heavily on people, but should not stop them from living their lives.

"The real attitude is to understand you can empower yourself to be a little more observant," Chadwich said. "Situational awareness is really a skill that you have to employ every time you go out the door, whether it's to church or to the mall or to work."

Fetzer says it will take real change to stop these mass shootings.

"There's a very big systemic approach that needs to be taken to make sure these events don't continue to happen," she said. "It's a very obviously complex problem that is going to involve a complex solution. But I think of equal importance to mental health is also the change-making that needs to happen so that this doesn't continue to happen."