The despair is still too fresh in New Orleans, the residents still in shock and survival mode.
But in the coming months and years, when evacuees no longer are worried about food and shelter, they will have to deal with the psychological scars of Hurricane Katrina, said grief counselor Nancy Rich, a professor at Metropolitan State College in Denver who recently returned from Louisiana.
Rain storms will terrify some children for years. Adults will have nightmares about losing their homes. And the next hurricane season and the anniversary of Katrina will dredge up emotions, causing some evacuees to deal with their grief for the first time, Rich said.
When hurricane evacuees are ready for psychological help, Rich hopes there are enough grief counselors in Louisiana ready to listen. She spent a week at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, where she trained about 80 therapists, clergy and teachers.
“People are still trying to survive,” Rich said. “They do occasionally, of course, get teary. But that staying-alive instinct kind of kicks in. You can’t do psychological counseling when people need food.”
Rich, who teaches post-traumatic stress disorder and psychopathology at Metro State, counseled survivors, grieving families and rescue workers after the shootings at Columbine High School, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and during the Oklahoma City bombing trial in Denver.
Metro State sent Rich to Monroe, where she taught a class in critical incident stress management and counseled exhausted, emotionally drained aid workers.
They seemed starved for the training, many driving from other northern Louisiana towns to hear what Rich had to say, she said. Her main message was “wait for those moments when people are ready to talk, and then be there to listen and go through it with them.”
Rich also urged aid workers to help evacuees “discover what they’ve learned about themselves during this journey.”
“They might not know it yet, but they’ve found strength that they never knew they had in the last 30 days,” she said.
Denise Pani, who works at the University of Louisiana’s counseling center, said the number of people affected by the hurricane is overwhelming. Everyone from teachers and school psychologists to police officers and social workers will need more disaster training, she said.
“Nothing has prepared us for this,” said Pani, who coordinated Rich’s trip. “This is going to be long term and we need to know how to help people.”
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached 303-820-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
