| Creedmoor
members still helping workers deal with 9/11 horror By DEBORAH A. MILES Four months after the attack on the World Trade Center, PEF members from Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens were still volunteering their time to those in need, providing trauma and grief counseling. For instance, intensive case manager Miriam Stanley was assigned to the Manhattan disaster site through the Queens chapter of the American Red Cross on September 11. And she continues to counsel individuals at various sites around Ground Zero. “The need for counseling is even greater now,” Stanley said. “Because some time has passed, there is a delayed reaction. In the beginning, many of the rescue workers had to stay focused on what they were doing and couldn’t allow themselves to feel.” In the days immediately following September 11, Stanley, along with approximately 40 other Creedmoor staff, rotated from one site to another. They assisted with “help-lines” organized by a local TV station, and counseled people who were severely traumatized by the event. Because of their mental health expertise, the Creedmoor workers were specifically selected to do debriefing for the Cantor Fitzgerald group — the financial services conglomerate that lost 700 people in the WTC attack. Stanley also assisted as a Spanish translator. “Because I am bi-lingual, I was assigned to various sites, such as St. John’s (church) respite near Ground Zero,” she recalled. All kinds of heroes “Along with the police and firefighters, people such as telephone workers and the men who hauled away the debris were pulling 18-hour shifts,” Stanley added. “We counseled them, too. A lot of them were there from day one and didn’t go home until the end of November.” Laraine Hinson-Spearman, a Creedmoor social worker, explained how the debriefing sessions helped people resume their lives. “People were traumatized by seeing body parts, people jumping from the buildings, and the horrific remains of the buildings,” she said. “They couldn’t go back to work as they knew it. We found that having groups share and discuss was a way to get them to do something for themselves, to move on.” More than they knew Hinson-Spearman said the Creedmoor staff also had a debriefing session. “That was quite an eye-opener for us,” she said. “We didn’t know we were all out there, doing what we had to do. We were in separate areas, and there were many, many of us doing many things. “The state Office of Mental Health and the executive leadership of Creedmoor were very supportive,” she added. Mary Willis, council leader of PEF Division 241 at Creedmoor, said hundreds of PEF members assisted when the tragedy occurred. “Our members were challenged with a tragedy that affected the world. Everyone pitched-in and every contribution was important,” she said. In addition to Stanley and Hinson-Spearman, Willis commended the following PEF members from Creedmoor: • Nurses — Elize Barnarsee, Janice Dunkin, Virginia Fadle, Annakutty Jacob, Richard Maddox, Joanne Mallon, Mary Mannino, Marie McDaniel, Hyacinth Moore, Florencann Paterno, Myra Sheffield, Barbara Stephens, Laverne Swinton and Gloria Whittington; • Social Workers — Susan Bloom, Lionel Brown, Usha Chopra, Maxine Frazier, Sam Gant, Thelma Green, John Johnson, Shan Ching Leung, Kathy Marthone, Mary McGee, Richard Mendez, Cheryl Mosher, Yvonne Somerville, Elaine Vasilopoulos, Larry Washington and Jeanette Wells; • Psychiatrists — Visitacion Castro, Pierre Francois, Suresh Patel, Mark Sorensen, Stuart Taylor; and • Psychologists — Constance Freeman and Andrea Katz. Back to Communicator Homepage |
SOUTH BEACH HEROES — Some of the more than 30 members of the Critical Incident Response Team at South Beach Psychiatric Center on Staten Island pause in December from their efforts to debrief traumatized survivors and families of victims of the terrorist attack of September 11. The team was formed several years earlier to respond to the crash of TWA Flight 800 when it crashed off Long Island. The team was so effective that it became a model for the state Office of Mental Health which called for all of its major facilities to form similar teams. “Our experience with one disaster helped us to be ready to help victims of another disaster,” says PEF member and EAP coordinator Gary Bisogna (far right), who heads the team. |
