Page 50 - The Long Road Home

PREPARING: PREVENTION AND MITIGATION
Photo: Pat Trotter, Two Giants Photos.
This program provided crisis counseling in counties impacted by Sandy. Trained counselors met with storm survivors individually and also organized support sessions for children and adults at community centers, restaurants, child care centers, churches, and other locations. Counselors from this program conducted over 37,000 individual visits, of which 39 percent resulted in referrals for further crisis counseling and ten percent were referred for more intensive mental health services.57 However, the program ended in 2014, leaving many without the support they so desperately needed. Extended funding for programs like Hope and Healing would ensure that these critical resources remain available to storm survivors even years after a disaster.
Our survey results, consistent with other studies, have found that even children in homes that
experienced minor storm damage were at particularly high risk for psychological and emotional issues.58 Children who have been through a natural disaster may benefit from increased counseling services in schools, or programs targeted towards youth through mental health organizations such as Hope and Healing. These services should be provided to young people of all ages, including those in college who may need help in finding appropriate resources outside of their local communities.
These services need to be accessible to all disaster survivors – many respondents indicated that health services weren’t available near their communities – and, as our survey shows, should be oriented toward helping survivors not just in the immediate aftermath but longer term as the need for help continues on long after the disaster.
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THE LONG ROAD HOME