Quake Counseling Program Gets Grant

Children still coping with anxiety caused by the Northridge earthquake will receive extra assistance because of a $23,000 special relief grant from Blue Shield of California.

Family Service of Los Angeles, which provides post-quake counseling on the campuses of Canoga Park and Reseda elementary schools, will use the extra funds to help families just now dealing with the psychological effects of the quake on their children, said Chief Executive Officer Emily Lloyd.

“Parents had so much to deal with, in terms of getting the house in order and making sure everything else was stable, that they weren’t aware their kids are still experiencing emotional problems carried over from nearly a year ago,” Lloyd said.

“(But) every time there is an aftershock, the initial fear is brought up among those who haven’t yet received help,” she added.

According to Lloyd, children who experience a traumatizing event without later receiving the proper attention are prone to engage in regressive behavior, such as thumb-sucking, bed-wetting or temper tantrums.

Problems that only existed on a minute level before the quake were probably exacerbated Jan. 17, she said. Parents should recognize this possibility when dealing with what they may initially construe to be a deeper problem with their children.

For this reason, Family Service of Los Angeles features a two-handed approach to its counseling efforts. The first is an educational overview of symptoms parents should look for in their children after a traumatic event. Counselors are then on hand to guide concerned guardians on methods to employ in re-establishing emotional stability within the entire family.

Meanwhile, the children are engaged in an art therapy program that allows them to draw out what happened to them on the day of the quake and to express their concerns about future disasters.

Counselors then go over disaster preparedness procedures with the young students.

“Being on the school campus is very helpful to us,” Lloyd said. “The message we want to send to the families is that the reactions they’re experiencing are normal reactions to an extremely abnormal situation.”

The grant will allow Family Service to run the program, initiated by Blue Shield immediately after the quake, well into the last week of January.