Page 179 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

148 Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilence

Pat Berliner was one of the first responders to TWA 800. She lives near
Kennedy Airport and, as a member of the New York State Psychological
Association Disaster Response Network, was asked to report to the
Ramada Inn where both the Command Center and the accommodations
for the families were set up. It was a mass of activity, seeming chaos and
sadness, and the first major disaster she had experienced.
When Pat arrived at the hotel, she walked into a mass of people.
Command stations for police, firefighters, and media shared the limited
space in the first floor lobby and banquet hall along with family members,
flight crew, and responders. At the same time, guests of the hotel walked
in and out of the lobby, the restaurant, and the courtyard. After getting
her bearings, Pat went over to a young couple, standing alone in the court-
yard. They had lost their daughter, one of the students from Pennsylvania
who was on a school trip to France. Pat went over to them, standing with
them quietly, until they began to talk about their loss. They were gracious,
scared, devastated people. In the midst of talking quietly, two eager young
volunteers came bounding over, announcing that they were counselors
and asking inappropriate questions in an inappropriate manner. Pat qui-
etly told them that she and the family were talking and that they might
want to see who else could use some help. Soon after that, two members of
the staff of the Travel Agency, which booked the flight, came over to her
and said they didn’t know what to do. They were afraid that they would
be seen as enemies but wanted to let the families know that they cared
about them in their grief. They, too, needed to find a way to grieve. Pat
suggested that their company might provide a scholarship to the school in
the names of the children. They were relieved to have something concrete
to offer.
At lunchtime, Pat was in the lobby, waiting for lunch to be served to the
staff and volunteers. One very prominent member of the mental health
community was standing in front of her, speaking loudly with other col-
leagues about her planned trip to Hawaii. Pat was aghast at this and left to
be with members of the families and the TWA personnel, who were there
to support them.
As the day went on, volunteers kept arriving. Nuns who were pastoral
counselors, clergy of various denominations, social workers, psycholo-
gists, counselors (credentialed and noncredentialed), all wanting to help,
all not knowing quite what to do, some very well qualified, some not at
all. Screening of these volunteers was next to impossible. Because of this
response and several additional aviation incidents that occurred within
a short period of time with similar complications, there was a call for