New Program Treats Trauma Full Time

When she was 14, Lucille began a furtive three-year affair with a family friend 11 years her senior. Now 30, she struggles to maintain relationships and shies away from socializing. Three weeks ago she swallowed sleeping pills in a suicide attempt.

Recently terrified by a dream in which she wanted to kill someone, she has turned for help to an inpatient program for victims of traumatic experiences, started at Sierra Royale Hospital last week. “I want to work the anger out,” said Lucille, who asked that her real name not be used.

The intensive 10- to 21-day program is open to all patients at the 57-bed psychiatric hospital in Azusa at no extra cost. Those who are not already in the hospital can be admitted to the program at a cost of $600 a day, said program director Donna Mognett.

About 30% of the hospital’s patients have been victims of some kind of trauma, according to Katherine Yont, director of marketing at the hospital.

Many trauma victims can be stabilized by outpatient counseling or through self-help groups in the community, she said. But there are others who need to “step away from their lives, be put into a structured program.”

By Thursday, 35 people had signed up for the program, which caters to victims recovering from experiences such as auto accidents, rape, incest and physical abuse. Thirty-three of the patients were already in the hospital, Yont said.

Between group therapy sessions, participants are given training in life skills, including assertiveness and stress management.

Legal issues are explored with a lawyer, and self-protection classes conducted as part of the program, which Mognett said offers the first formalized inpatient approach of its kind in the San Gabriel Valley.

“Full recovery requires intensive work, which opens emotional wounds,” said Mognett, explaining why she felt people with such problems should stay at the hospital.

Patients identify details of the trauma they are dealing with and confront it by reliving the experience, an emotional release that is best dealt with under close supervision, she said.

Patients are encouraged to physically vent their rage at an imagined perpetrator, sometimes screaming or striking out with a foam-rubber bat, Mognett said. They are usually exhausted or euphoric afterward, she added.

Victim Needs Support

“The victim is vulnerable, susceptible to irrational behavior, suicidal attempts and homicidal thoughts, and needs a supportive environment to work through this process,” she said.

One patient said she was more comfortable revealing her feelings because she felt safe living at the hospital. She was 15 when her mother killed herself, she said, adding that she still battles “massive” feelings of abandonment.

“I don’t have to (undergo therapy) for an hour and then go outside and deal with the world,” she said. Outside, “you can’t cry if you feel like crying, or get angry in the middle of the day.”