O.C. Seeking $1 Million to Fight Fire Fears

Orange County will ask the federal government for about $1 million more in disaster relief to help local residents, especially children, deal with lingering psychological trauma from the fall firestorms.

County Mental Health Director Timothy P. Mullins said hundreds of children whose families or friends lost homes in the devastating fires continue to have problems with concentration, nightmares and bed wetting. In addition, there is lingering trauma for others, too.

Some children, Mullins said, even react with signs of panic to the Santa Ana winds, which were blamed for whipping the October flames into a mobile inferno.

“I’ve seen a lot of requests for children,” Mullins said. “We have some cases where children are sleeping with their mothers and fathers at age 13.”

As a result, the Orange County Board of Supervisors is expected to approve today a request for aid totaling $991,194. The county has already received about $400,000 in federal mental health aid related to fire damage.

Under the proposal, counselors who work for the county and local community health clinics would provide the counseling to adults and children. One program would be a stress-management session featuring clinical psychologist Robert Scott, who specializes in trauma/disaster psychology.

In its 26-page grant application, county officials estimated that 400 children are considered at “high risk” of post-fire trauma.

“It was noted that children are experiencing an increasing sense of vulnerability, anger, fear and anxiety over the fire losses,” officials stated in the report. “Such children are increasingly seeking support elsewhere: in drug use and gang-like peer groups.”

Although Mullins said Laguna Beach and other South County communities have “experienced a good deal of healing” since the massive destruction last fall, the need for more help remains as Southern California shifts its attention from one disaster to another.

In Orange County, some local resources and counselors once dedicated to firestorm survivors have been diverted to help victims of the recent Northridge earthquake.

For the past 10 days, Mullins said about 30 county Mental Health Department workers have been dispatched to Los Angeles County to counsel those suffering from the immediate problems of home loss and extended homelessness.

Many of the local counselors have been working in the “tent cities” where some residents have been living since the quake shook Los Angeles two weeks ago.

“The need up there is literally overwhelming,” Mullins said. “Our people have been up there working 13- to 14-hour shifts.”

Back in Orange County, Mullins said that although children are among the most severely affected, other segments of the population are still experiencing post-fire troubles.

Older adults, who make up about 14% of Laguna’s population, “are still fearful that they will not be safe from arson,” officials said in the county application.

“Some still take their belongings with them wherever they go and many are reluctant to buy items of value,” officials said. “Many older adults are isolated . . . and not inclined to seek services from unfamiliar programs.”

The loss of homes and other valuables for widowed older residents has been especially difficult as the lost items represent the only ties to a deceased spouse, Mullins said.

Local homeless service providers also report an increasing number of contacts with the “chronically homeless” after the fire.

“Some of these individuals are those who camped in the canyon before the fire,” officials said. “Others are emotionally handicapped individuals who, prior to the fire, were living with family or friends. The disruption of the fire has exacerbated their conditions and now makes a shared living arrangement difficult.”

In their grant request, officials estimated that neighborhood and environmental restoration “will require years,” especially in Laguna Beach, where hundreds of homes and thousands of acres of parklands were ravaged.