Page 149 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

118 Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilence

unaddressed mental health needs and took leadership to collaborate with
mental health providers to meet these needs.
As Dr. Ramon Nieves, head of Mission for the United Methodist
Committee on Relief, observed: “Over 70% of our clientele at UMCOR
walk in with a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Many
do not acknowledge (or want to acknowledge) their present state of mind.
They feel that if they address their financial situation, all will be well.
Economic recovery is not synonymous with mental wellness.” The 9/11
Roundtable was often witness to challenges of providing integrated care to
those displaced by 9/11 and took leadership to address the challenge.
Through the 9/11 Roundtable, along with its continued support for 9/11
victims’ recovery plans, NYDIS began administering a mental health ben-
efit to cover the cost of mental health services that 9/11 disaster victims
could not afford. (Individuals became eligible for this benefit after they
had exhausted other resources including the American Red Cross mental
health benefit.) An added blessing to this arrangement in terms of collabo-
ration was that the cases of mental health clinicians began to be reviewed
at NYDIS by Daniel H. Bush, a chaplain. This provided an opportunity to
better coordinate the mental health and spiritual care services a person
was receiving.

An example of better coordination between mental health and spiritual care
was a case brought by a social worker. She was doing therapy with a Jewish man
and related in her case summary that her client stopped going to Synagogue
after his trauma with September 11. The therapist had not thought to con-
tact the rabbi of the Synagogue. Daniel suggested she consider discussing the
issues with the patient. With the patient’s permission, perhaps she could con-
tact the rabbi. The patient benefited from the renewed contact with his spiri-
tual community, and this, in turn, assisted with the progress of his treatment
with the social worker.

The review of these cases and the other data collected by the 9/11
Roundtable of underserved people documented unnoticed patterns,
helping to inform the work of partnering agencies, opening door-
ways to practical and creative collaborations. For example, the coor-
dinator of the American Red Cross Additional Assistance Program
began regularly attending the 9/11 Roundtable meetings. This allowed
the American Red Cross to pick up clients they missed and to learn
more about those who fell slightly outside their eligibility matrix. At
the same time, the presence of the American Red Cross staff person