Page 169 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

138 Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilence

area like New York, there can be insufficient integration of services. To get
reimbursed by insurance for services, many professionals must define the
children they serve as “patients” and see them in their offices rather than
at schools.
To address such difficulties, mental health professionals can try going
above the principal to a system-wide intervention or going below the
principal to a grassroots intervention. I have found that the former has
drawbacks, and the latter is more likely to work if a contact person can be
selected who will stay in that school year after year.
Regarding the first approach, a number of us at the White Institute’s
Trauma Response Service planned over several years after 9/11 to collabo-
rate with a consortium that represented over 100 public schools in New
York City. The effort was quite exciting because of the large number of
schools that potentially were going to be involved in receiving training
in psychological preparedness for disasters (this training is described in
more detail below). Yet the effort failed due to an unnecessary internal dif-
ference in budget expectations, which was based on insufficient internal
communication on our part regarding the minimum budgetary needs for
the project.
The second, grassroots approach was more successful, as we worked
with a grade school in our neighborhood for some time. Prior to 9/11,
we had consulted with that school, provided therapy for its students, and
offered workshops for its teachers. After 9/11, the principal rebuffed our
offers for help and left at the end of the year anyway. However, because of
a key preexisting contact with the school psychologist, we continued to be
a helpful presence for that school, offering onsite consultation as well as
therapy services at our clinic. Such contacts and preexisting relationships
must be built over long periods of time and are an important part of being
prepared to deal with disasters when they occur.
Once there is an entry point in a school, whether through the system,
the principal, or a grass-roots contact, school staff should receive training
in recognizing signs of trauma in students, both for existing situations and
for future disasters. This basic psychoeducational approach facilitates col-
laboration by providing common ground required for clear understand-
ing and discussion. Communication should be kept open among teachers,
aides, and school-based support staff regarding such students. Staff should
keep lists of children who have risk factors for developing PTSD; such lists
can be developed through teacher reporting and peer screening. In one
school, this goal was compromised by the administration’s concern over
legal liability for intervention once a student was identified as needing