Pilgrim team members find unexpected rewards in responding to WTC disaster By DEBORAH A. MILES Employees of Pilgrim Psychiatric Center on Long Island are left with bittersweet feelings after the World Trade Center tragedy. Nearly 100 members of PEF Division 233 — social workers, psychologists, psychiatric nurses and others — formed Pilgrim’s World Trade Center Disaster Response Team. They provided crisis counseling and conducted debriefing groups and grief groups to help people cope with the loss of family members. Sharing in this healing effort forged a new and strong bond among the response team members. “We didn’t know each other, but we all came together and really worked as a team. Everyone brought different qualities and skills,” said PEF steward Terry Quigley, a nurse administrator. In it together “This facility is so large, I got to know staff members on the team I hadn’t met before. One of the things that impressed me most is how close the team became,” Quigley said. “Now, when you see someone from the team, you get a knowing glance and a big smile.” The majority of the Pilgrim staff worked out of state offices on Beaver Street, just a few blocks from Ground Zero. Others provided counseling at the airports, local businesses and even in coffee shops. They talked and listened to hundreds of people who were emotionally torn from the devastation, and helped them cope so they could go on with their lives. At times, the counselors themselves experienced fear and sadness, but also realized a new connection with their co-workers. “I’ve been with the state for 25 years and I did not anticipate the experience I had,” said PEF member Marianne Johnston, a nurse. “I did not expect to be so profoundly moved. And to be that moved by people you don’t know really forges a bond you are not ready for,” she said. Johnston and the others working out of the Beaver Street location bonded even more about a week after the attack when they suddenly were forced to evacuate the building. “It was very frightening. There was a lot of dust, soldiers marching down the street and helicopters all over the place,” she said. “No one knew what was going on.” The evacuation resulted when dust clouds were raised by the upheaval of an area in Ground Zero that was being cleared. For a brief moment, the team had felt some of the confusion and fear first-hand. And the experience made Johnston feel closer to the September 11 victims in another way. “We were coated in that dust with the remains of all those people,” she said. Counselors deeply affected “We were there until the end of November,” said PEF member Marianne Miller, Pilgrim’s associate director for quality management. “We saw people cry, and our own counselors cried with them.” Miller and Adele Weitzel, an RN, were the coordinators of Pilgrim’s team and well trained in trauma response. They made sure the team members received counseling every day. “Every time we left the city, we were debriefed on the ride back to Long Island. That was very important.” Johnston said. “Dr. Miller made sure everyone explored and released what they were feeling, so we didn’t take it all home with us.” “We empathized, encouraged and supported hundreds of individuals through their fear, anxiety, disbelief and anger. And, we used and continue to use every clinical, spiritual and interpersonal skill available to us, to help people work through the effects of this disaster,” Miller said. The Response Team was recognized by Pilgrim’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Committee earlier this year, an annual honor bestowed on a group for keeping the spirit of human goodness. And PEF Division 233 honored the team at its April meeting. — Photos by Rick Kaiser