Mental hurdles faced as recovery continues

Clark County

Discussion

March 29, 2012

Mental hurdles faced as recovery continues

Counseling services seeing uptick in those seeking help

By DAVID A. MANN david.mann@newsandtribune.com The News and Tribune Thu Mar 29, 2012, 01:02 AM EDT

> SOUTHERN INDIANA — As storm recovery efforts continue into their fourth week, focus is shifting toward the emotional aspects of the recovery.

Counselors are reaching out to victims via churches and word-of-mouth referrals and schools are considering how to approach students recovering from the disaster.

An EF-4 tornado ripped through northern Clark County on March 2. Since then, the cleanup has gotten well under way, but Clarksville-based Personal Counseling Services Executive Director Doug Drake said the emotional scars may not be as easy to heal.

“What we’re seeing now is people are starting to trickle in,” Drake said.

Even before the storm, the organization had already been working with about 33 students at Henryville Schools. Since the disaster, a few more families have sought counseling there as well, as they’re dealing with the loss of their homes, treasured heirlooms and the red tape of getting back on their feet.

“When there’s any trauma in someone’s life, the physical trauma is visible,” he said. “Emotional trauma is unseen. People hold in a lot of emotions that they really need to work through.”

Drake said the emotional scars manifest themselves in different ways for different people. Some victims could be facing depression from loss, he said. For others, it could be anxiety or even post traumatic stress disorder all waiting to be triggered by the next big storm.

“It doesn’t allow for closure,” he said.

Addressing some of those mental health questions has already been a concern for the West Clark Community Schools Corp., which is trying to get students back into a routine after the tornado ransacked the Henryville schools complex.

For the elementary students, the first few days were devoted to talking about what happened.

“We decided that having them be around familiar faces would be better than counseling from strangers,” said John Reed, assistant superintendent. “It actually went really well.”

Reed said the amount of chatter between students was tremendous as, for many, it was the first time they’d seen any of their friends since the day of the storm. Teachers talked to students about what happened and also looked for signs of distress, withdraw, nervousness or illness. The few who displayed such symptoms were given an opportunity to speak to staff counselors, Reed said.

Elementary students started back at the former Graceland Christian School in New Albany on March 21. High School students are expected to be sent to a temporary facility in Scottsburg at Mid-America Science Park starting Monday. And Reed said school officials are still trying to figure out how to make counseling services available to them.

“The high school and junior high is kind of a different bird,” he said. “Personally, I have more concern about those kids being able to deal with it.”