When
a disaster strikes, relief focuses on physical issues like food,
shelter and water. But, in general, there is less emphasis on
the psychological wellbeing of people who have often just endured
great trauma.
But the Jamaican Red Cross (JRC), which has been working to
help those affected by Hurricane Ivan, which smashed into the
island on 11 September, has been addressing their psychological
as well as material needs.
Jamaican Red Cross mental health teams have been active since
the hours after the hurricane hit the island, focusing on basic
interventions with evacuees in emergency shelters. If they find
a critical case, they refer them on for ongoing care.
“In most cases, people just need reassuring that what
they are feeling is normal, that they are not going crazy,”
says Angela Gordon, the head of the Jamaican Red Cross mental
health team.
First they work in groups then one to one. “Many of them
never thought about their emotional responses. They didn’t
understand that their feelings were related to what they’d
lived with the hurricane” Gordon says.
“Many found themselves going round and round in circles,
trying to do a thousand things and not achieving anything. We
teach them also how to help each others as a community,”
she adds with her gentle but firm voice.
A key part of the programme is getting people to feel valued
members of their community. Many have lost everything, some
even relatives, and there is little or nothing for them to do.
They spend too long in shelters and a culture of dependency
relationship develops
To counter this, the programme seeks the help of shelter managers.
They can get people involved in activities and make them feel
useful, while at the same time developing a sense of community.
“We have to think that the people in these shelters are
often low-income single parents with little education and very
low self-esteem,” Gordon explains. “We try to give
them practical solutions, a few tips that hopefully will have
impact and improve their situation”.
“We help them understand the feelings and emotions they
are going through, especially how to identify the effects in
children - for example if they are wetting the bed again or
they are holding on to their mum or dad all the time. We help
them try to cope with this as parents, trying to avoid them
mistreating the children,” she adds.
Children are the most vulnerable in this type of situation,
though at the same time, the most likely to heal faster, if
reached in time.
The team of JRC volunteers has also been raising awareness among
school staff, helping them to understand how the disaster may
affect children’s behaviour. Many children were already
unsettled by the start of the school year, which happened just
one week before the hurricane struck.
In Jamaica schools, it is compulsory to wear uniforms, and most
children have lost theirs. Schools are therefore being urged
to be flexible on issues like this.
Angela joined the Red Cross shortly after Hurricane Gilbert
hit Jamaica in 1999. “That time, I lost the roof of my
house and everything inside got damaged. I felt very stressed.
Luckily I was insured and I had a secure job, so I could put
the roof back. But what happens to other people that aren’t
so lucky? What happens to all these people who took years to
build and gather their possession little by little and with
a lot of effort?”
This question and its answer was what made her, and people like
her, join the Red Cross and start up the psychological support
programme. The Jamaican Red Cross mental health teams include
28 people, including psychologists, social workers and psychiatric
nurses. They never operate with fewer than two persons per team.
All of them are volunteers.
Since all of these volunteers are from the capital, Kingston,
Angela’s hope is to build up a team of volunteers in other
parishes. However, most important for her now is to train all
Red Cross staff and volunteers to identify possible reactions
to post-hurricane stress.
“Even if you are responsible for a feeding programme,
if you understand beneficiaries’ reactions and your own
response to stress, your work will be more effective,”
she says.
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Psychologically,
children are often the hardest hit in disasters, but also
the quickest to recover, if they receive help (12039)
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Angela
Gordon would like to see her Jamaican Red Cross mental
health team extend beyond the capital, Kingston (p12042)
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Jamaican
Red Cross volunteers have been helping communities to
recover from Hurricane Ivan (p12042)
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