Page 111 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

80 Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilence

tremendously litigious situations in the United States. When disasters are
the result of intentional acts (as with crimes and terrorism) or potential
negligence (as with airplane crashes or industrial accidents), the victims
are likely to seek redress in a court of law at some point. Even after natural
disasters, it is common for victims to use lawyers to seek compensation
from FEMA and insurance companies. Although most responders may
not have significant direct liability, the impression may remain that all
responders have some access to resources that can help a disaster victim,
and thus they may all be perceived as “deep pockets” in a lawsuit-fishing
expedition. At the very least, responders may expect to receive subpoenas
when victims are asked to substantiate their degree of loss and suffering.

Vignette 3
Rev. Jones and Dr. Katz fine-tuned their system of referrals to avoid the prob-
lem in Vignette 2. When Rev. Jones is especially concerned about whether a
survivor will see Dr. Katz, the Reverend arranges to directly introduce Dr.
Katz to the survivor, thus avoiding the situation where he is left holding all the
responsibility for individuals who may be deteriorating. Sometimes, Rev. Jones
is able to give Dr. Katz substantial information about a person who is staying
at the church and is having a problem. In one case, Dr. Katz and Rev. Jones
were able to strategize on how to help a mother who was reluctant to get help
for herself. The mother was concerned about the nightmares that her 10-year-
old son was having, but wouldn’t seek help for her own growing problems with
alcohol since the hurricane. Dr. Katz agreed to meet with the mother to answer
questions about her son and was eventually able to develop enough trust so
that the mother could open up about her alcohol problem. A week later, the
mother and son disappeared for a day and Rev. Jones called Dr. Katz to inform
him. Dr. Katz called back to reassure him that they were able to visit with the
son’s father while his second wife was away on business. Rev. Jones was sur-
prised to learn that the father was still alive because the mother had implied
that she was widowed. When she returned to the shelter a few days later, Rev.
Jones expressed his happiness that she has been doing so well and that her son
was able to see his father after such a long time. He immediately realized from
the look on her face that he should not have said that.

In many ways, Vignette 3 represents a good collaborative relationship
between a mental health professional and a pastor. They were working as
a team, but technically, there was an important wall of confidentiality that
Dr. Katz needed to maintain once he developed a doctor–patient relation-
ship. When doing outreach work after a disaster, the beginning of such a