$844,025 Set Aside to Help Victims Deal With Fire Trauma

Federal officials announced the allocation of $844,025 Tuesday to five fire-beset counties in Southern California to provide crisis counseling for people suffering psychological problems because of the recent firestorms.

“The emotional devastation in dealing with the Southern California wildfire disasters is every bit as real as the property destruction,” said Stephen W. Mayberg, director of the state Department of Mental Health.

Funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be distributed by Mayberg’s department to county mental health departments in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties.

Mayberg said the funds would be used primarily for information campaigns and group sessions.

Priority will be given to people whose homes or businesses were destroyed or damaged, although people without direct property losses will also eligible, Mayberg said.

Psychologists say that disaster survivors can suffer depression, nightmares, sleeplessness, fatigue, anger, hyperactivity or loss of appetite.

Alcohol and drug use, domestic violence and acute anxiety are also common among people who have been touched by major earthquakes, fires or civil disturbances.

“Often, these are people who were going about their lives just fine, and then they get blindsided by a disaster,” Mayberg said. “The fires can trigger a sense of inadequacy as people realize the power of nature.”

Children and the elderly are the most vulnerable, according to follow-up studies of other disasters.

In San Diego County, where the fires destroyed 3,200 homes and killed 14 people, the firestorm left a widespread residue of anger, even among citizens living far from the fire zones, according to a poll done for KPBS radio.

The poll found that 55% of the public felt that the fires had been made worse by a lack of proper attention to fire protection by local officials.

And 44% of the those polled knew someone whose house had been destroyed.

In tandem with FEMA and the Red Cross, San Diego County mental health workers began offering services to fire survivors on Oct. 26 as shelters were established for people routed from their homes.

Many people left homeless are from rural areas and are reluctant to seek psychological help, said Alfredo Aguirre, director of children’s mental health services for the county health department.

“We try to minimize the label ‘mental health’ and let people know it’s more like counseling, providing advice, helping families sort things out and avoid the trauma,” Aguirre said.

The full extent of the psychological trauma wrought by the fires, particularly on children, may not be known for months, Aguirre said.

His department is already working with a community group in Alpine and with school officials in the Scripps Ranch neighborhood.

“Particularly for families who had to rush out and leave their homes, we expect to see a post-traumatic stress-like syndrome surface in dreams and agitation at school,” Aguirre said.