Need in Haiti extends far beyond the physical

Women sit on sacks of rice after they were distributed by the US Army at a makeshift camp for earthquake survivors in the Cite Soleil neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, Satuday Feb. 13, 2010. Haiti was struck by a magnitude 7 earthquake last Jan. 12, leaving thousands homeless.(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

We have put together a team of grief and trauma counselors (and one laborer) from Flood Church San Diego. Flood is partnered with an organization called Children of the Nations (COTN). We are currently working with 13 Haitian children and members of their family that are staying with them in Barahona, Dominican Republic at the COTN Clinic.

The kids range in age from 5 to 16 years old, and the types of injuries as diverse as their ages.

Many of them have broken bones; some have had amputations, and all of them donning cuts and bruises. That is just the beginning of the physical issues that exist following the earthquake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12. The emotional and psychological effects have only just begun to show up, and undoubtedly they will remain for years to come.

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The extent of the grief, loss, and trauma stretches far beyond anything I’ve ever witnessed. When I say that, I don’t mean to imply one person’s loss any worse or any better than the next — because all loss is unique and painful — but the sheer number of people whose loss took place at the same moment in time is simply overwhelming. It’s very difficult to know where to begin in addressing the needs of the people from a grief and trauma perspective.

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Ryan Jackson is a Marriage and Family Therapy intern.

On our first full day at the clinic, while playing Connect Four with an 11-year-old boy named Rayshe, I nonchalantly ask about his dad. He replied (in surprisingly excellent English), “You don’t want to know about that.”

Yet as a grief counselor, that is exactly what I want to know about. I hope to enter into a bit of his emotional pain, if and when he’ll let me. But I’m aware for the moment, that it’s difficult for him to face it. I wonder to myself if my desire to connect with him takes him unnecessarily back into the trauma of the earthquake, of his loss, of his many losses…not to mention the physical pain of his two broken legs.

At least for that day, we are content to continue just sitting together, laughing, and strategizing our next Connect Four move.

Ryan Jackson is a Marriage and Family Therapy intern in private practice at Life Spring Center in San Diego. He will be blogging from the Dominican Republic and Haiti throughout the duration of his stay. Contact him at ryanjackson.mft@gmail.com or (619) 298-8722.

Tags: Earthquake, grief counseling, Haiti, mental health, physical aid, Ryan Jackson, SDNN, trauma

This entry was posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 11:40 am and is filed under Health . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.