Haiti Relief Workers Risk Their Minds, Experts Say

How do I know these things?

Sunday, January 17, 2010

With humanitarian missions into Haiti, they will carry memories of combat with them

Experience mostly and too many years of studying it. It is also one of the things crisis workers train for the most. When you respond to a crisis, usually you are responding to take care of the caregivers and this is done for a reason. If they fall apart, the people they trained to help will not be helped the next time. The responders need to be cared for because of all they encounter with survivors.

Each time I go to a conference or training session, we focus on responders knowing they will be drained of everything they have and no amount of training can prepare them for everything. We end up getting drained as well and some of us burn out but we are dealing with a totally different type of person. We are dealing with the caregivers instead of the victim/survivors. Some Chaplains do train to work with the survivors as well with each one following where they are called to be. This is done because we finally understand the price paid by the responders to disasters caused by nature and traumatic events caused by man.

No matter where we come from or language we speak, no matter what our income is or the color of our skin, we are all humans and our bodies, our minds, all work the same way with the same basic needs. We are all human and it is the basis for the outpouring of aid for the people of Haiti. We all see the human face of all they are going thru and most of us, well, we know how we would feel if we were going thru the same.

My greatest concern is for the responders, especially the men and women in the military after what they are carrying with them from Iraq and Afghanistan. For many, it will be healing but for too many they are not prepared for what is to come on this humanitarian mission.

What is very heartening about this report is that the media acknowledge this considering the days of reporting on the people of Haiti, they found time to report on this aspect few ever see.

Haiti Relief Workers Risk Their Minds, Experts Say
Even Aid Workers May Be At Risk for Mental Issues After Witnessing Destruction
By LAUREN COX
ABC News Medical Unit
Jan. 18, 2010
As more medical and rescue teams arrive in Haiti , mental health experts say these volunteers and soldiers may be risking not just their safety, but the sanctity of their own minds in the earthquake-shattered capital Port-au-Prince.

Stefano Zannini, head of mission Doctors Without Borders said the streets of Haiti are crowded with people looking for help. "They're trying to find their families or their friends. I can see thousands of them walking the stress asking for help." At night, they sleep on the streets covered with blankets or plastic bags.

As of Friday, Zannini expected more people would be pulled from the rubble alive. But as the citizens of Haiti search for family members, for food or for medical care, the government of Haiti has already sent trucks around the city to pick up dead bodies.
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Haiti Relief Workers Risk Their Minds, Experts Say