Page 171 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

140 Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilence

theater. Staff and students who showed courage and compassion during
the trauma can be commended in various ways.
Yet the value of public commemoration and expression of feeling must
be balanced with the other important agenda of minimizing reminders
of the trauma. Reminders of the disaster can retraumatize students, rais-
ing autonomic reactions and causing flashbacks. After the initial round of
intense focus on what happened and how students reacted, normal rou-
tines should resume. Also, in the days after the disaster, school staff should
be watching out for copycat incidents and posttraumatic play in which the
disaster is played out in dangerous ways. Finally, school staff should be
attentive to the need to make referrals of at-risk students and their families
to counseling services inside and outside the school.

Community-Based Initiatives for Children Regarding Disasters

For mental health professionals who want to help children outside of the
school setting after a disaster, there is no time to wait for a treatment rela-
tionship to begin in the traditional way, with a client approaching a thera-
pist. Parents, children, and adolescents can be approached at help centers
that often spring up near the site of the disaster, organized by local groups,
the Red Cross, or the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
After the attack on the World Trade Center in September 2001, for example,
this kind of center was created at Pier 94 in downtown Manhattan (Coates,
Schechter, & First, 2003). With children, the use of drawings, collages, and
other forms of art was especially helpful in finding a way to express the
horror of the disaster. It was useful to have a separate area set aside for these
activities, providing a protected environment for the children.
Another way to help children and families at the community level after
a disaster is to solicit large corporations and businesses to aid in the effort.
Affected companies need to mourn the loss of colleagues, employees, and
leaders. Staff members need to adjust to new locations, relationships, roles,
and challenges. Many employees and executives are parents who bring
their stress home. Some employees may be bereaved because of the disas-
ter, and some may have been killed, leaving spouses and children bereaved
at home. For surviving staff who are left with their families intact, guilt
and concern over these families interferes with morale and productivity at
work. These problems refer to an enormous need.