Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Mental anguish lasts long after Andrew's fury Date: Sun, 1 Nov 92 20:06:09 EST Message-ID: \SE A;SCIENCE/HEALTH \HD Mental anguish lasts long after Andrew's fury \BY Joyce Price \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Nearly two months after Hurricane Andrew devastated South Florida and coastal Louisiana, psychological and emotional damage wrought by the killer storm persist. Victims of Andrew have had to cope with such major assaults on their mental health as a lack of housing, a lack of electricity and running water, mosquitoes, and a lack of privacy from being jammed up in shelters with other people. "The physical damage was monumental, but psychiatrists say the emotional trauma that Andrew left in its wake is even more devastating," American Medical News correspondent Elizabeth DeVita wrote in a recent report. AMN is the American Medical Association's weekly newspaper. Because of this, many mental health professionals in areas hit hard by the hurricane have been donating their time to provide therapy. In Miami, Dr. Carl Eisdorfer, chief of mental health services at Jackson Memorial Medical Center and head of the psychiatry department at the University of Miami School of Medicine, has been leading a group of about 100 volunteers in such psychological relief efforts. In an interview in AMN, he described the kinds of problems people discuss in the outreach groups he and his colleagues have organized. "One social worker . . . took only about two minutes to break down after she started talking," Dr. Eisdorfer said. "What really got her was that her child, a 3-year-old, kept walking around what was left of their house, saying, 'living room broke, bedroom broke' - all of the rooms were broken." The social worker, who has been involved in counseling other hurricane victims, told Dr. Eisdorfer she "felt much better after getting that out of her system." In Florida, the Red Cross estimates that 137,561 homes were destroyed. In Louisiana, the figure was 21,456. Dr. Bruno Lima, a Johns Hopkins University psychiatrist and an expert on disaster aftermath, told AMN that the stress of dealing with insurance companies and rebuilding homes will only heighten tensions for many victims. "Anxiety, anger, depression, grief" will be common, he said. "The stress will be chronic. You can probably expect to see substance abuse and spouse and child abuse" among those living in damaged or temporary housing. "People might berate themselves for not getting over their grief more quickly, but this is not losing a person. This is losing everything," Dr. Lima said. The good news, he said, is that hurricane victims will be spared the effects of post-traumatic stress syndrome, psychological problems induced by trauma that tend to be re-experienced by sufferers. "These people were evacuated, so they didn't witness the storm. The disaster is not the hurricane - the disaster is the aftermath." Dr. Raquel Cohen, a child psychiatrist in Miami who helped the Red Cross establish a branch to deal with victims' emotional distress, said she and her colleagues have been meeting with groups of children, families and community leaders to get them to talk about how they feel. "The focus is intervention, helping people air their feelings and fears before they can become larger than life," Miss DeVita wrote. Dr. Cohen, she said, is also training community leaders to promote this kind of airing to help them "endure the long months of building ahead." Both the University of Miami and Louisiana State University offer toll-free hot lines for people needing help in coping with Andrew-related stress. And such assistance will continue. The National Institute of Mental Health has awarded Florida a $2.8 million grant to fund psychiatric intervention for up to a year. Louisiana also has applied for funding. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM