Florida Health Center, “Emergency People” Seek Post-Hurricane Mental Health Care.

Posted by Talya Meyers

The dire threat of Hurricane Milton has alarmed meteorologists and emergency responders. Even after the storm was downgraded to Category 3, it caused severe flooding and widespread damage across Florida’s cities.

In one of the patients of Dr. For Rhonda Cameron, a middle-aged woman who has lived in the county since she was four years old, the storm wasn’t just scary in itself. It was a strange reminder of a childhood trauma.

In September 1960, the patient recalled, the deadly and devastating Hurricane Donna struck just weeks after her family moved to Florida. He remembered his mother putting him under the bed, along with his sister, brother, and the family dog, to ride out the storm.

“Hurricane Milton triggered her PTSD in Donna,” explained Dr. Cameron, director of behavioral health services at Premier Community HealthCare, a federally qualified health agency serving Florida’s Pasco and Hernando Counties.

Milton, which made landfall in early October, after Category 5 Hurricane Helene, devastated many similar communities in Florida, mostly along or near the Gulf Coast. Mental health workers described patients who, who were not financially dependent before the storm, had already faced severe damage from flooding or fallen trees. People with no money to flee, who unleashed dangerous hurricanes on mobile homes. And after Milton died, nightmares, severe anxiety symptoms, and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder increased.

Floridians often stress that hurricanes are a part of life, baking storm cakes and taking immediate evacuation warnings.

But natural disasters have undeniable effects on mental health, causing new symptoms or worsening existing ones. Long-term donors have reported significant increases in post-traumatic stress, anxiety, overwhelm, and other related issues after severe storms and wildfires. New evidence, such as a 2022 study focusing on Florida residents who have experienced multiple hurricanes, suggests that exposure to frequent natural disasters can increase mental health effects when time is running out.

Community health centers serving the Helene- and Milton-affected communities are now responding to what the Premier’s social worker, Larry Legg, describes as “a flood of people coming in” to seek life support. mental health.

Patients at Evara Health in Pinellas County, where both hurricanes caused significant damage, were nervous, said Kelly Singleton, clinical social worker and director of behavioral health at the community health center. .

“Usually we control our hurricanes, but these two [coming] “This is the scariest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.

“They can have more connection”

Family Health Centers of Tampa, with several locations in the Tampa area, offers extended hours for mental health appointments – staying open until 8:00 pm on weekdays. a week and offering Saturday and Sunday elections, said Dr. Latamia Green, pediatrician and adult. psychiatrist and director of a behavioral health center. Providers offer affected patients short-term, frequent options “so they can have more of a connection,” he said.

Although the needs of each patient are unique, Dr. Green explained, hurricane response often requires a strong focus on supportive care, helping patients navigate post-traumatic stress and day-to-day activities, rather than an approach that based on the insight you may have. long-term work with the doctor.

Caring for patients affected by natural disasters is a multi-step process, Dr. Green said. In his diverse practice – which includes overseeing a clinic for schizophrenia patients and caring for children with autism spectrum disorders, among other mental health needs – support often begins in the first days of the storm. it falls, when he helps patients to manage. their concerns and make a plan to get care after the storm.

Now, Dr. Providers work with patients to meet the most urgent needs, Green said, and care navigators provide support for patients navigating the complex process of applying for support. of the state of emergency, temporary housing, and access to renewable energy and water. “Physical impairment can make the mental health aspect even more difficult,” said Dr. Green.

In Evara, too, mental health providers were available in the evenings and on weekends. Same-day appointments were available for patients who needed immediate care, and professionals connected people with community services and helped with applications and paperwork.

“If we don’t catch them – we will lose them”

While all of Evara’s medical providers are trained in trauma care and screening patients for mental health symptoms, Singleton said heightened awareness is especially important after a hurricane. “Patients who need to be seen for behavioral health are presenting to primary care,” he explained.

Singleton is concerned because patients affected by the storm are often focused on medical needs or lost homes — not on their mental health.

“If we don’t catch them in that moment — when they share how stressed they are or how worried they are, we’re going to lose them,” he said. In an already “highly underserved” population, losing the opportunity to connect a patient to mental health care can exacerbate low needs.

To the Prime Minister, Legg was concerned about patients who, in the face of severe flooding, damage, and power outages, canceled appointments or did not consult with mental health providers. One of his patients, a young adult, had to deal with a last-minute evacuation situation with a wheelchair-bound parent when their home was flooded. , and could not enter.

“They’re still in that survival mode,” Legg said.

The Prime Minister’s staff was well aware that, although power was returning to the entire region, patients – some of them dependent on portable medical equipment – were still in the dark. The students missed school for a whole week while the school buildings were public security.

Legg noted that, during his childhood in rural Appalachia, the expectation that “I have to pull up my shoes and go to work” was common, even after a disaster. Today, he sees many patients at Premier who feel they have to “fight” their mental health symptoms, and are reluctant to seek treatment.

Florida’s rainy season, which reminds people of past hurricanes and past floods, often triggers those symptoms as well, he said.

The health centers interviewed were also concerned about the staff, who generally live in the local communities and have the same influence as their patients. While workers often put their emergency needs aside in the wake of a disaster, Legg was concerned about his colleagues dealing with neck-deep flooding, downed trees, and their vital signs. mental health as they show themselves at work.

He said: “We are trying to keep an eye, to fight the secondary stress” of caring for the most affected patients.

“Part of the puzzle”

Dr. Green warned that hurricane-affected patients need mental health support long after the most immediate needs have been met: “Most of the impact happens months later. ” And as a psychiatrist who sees both children and adults, and treats many different mental health disorders, he emphasizes the importance of individualized treatment.

“Every patient we see is unique,” he said.

Instead of thinking about disaster response versus routine care, Dr. Green helps patients prepare for the added stress and emotional response that a hurricane can trigger. “That’s another part of the game, living here in Florida: making sure they know how to deal with trauma and how to deal with stress,” he said.

Singleton, too, works with patients with post-traumatic stress disorder to help them manage the effects of the storms. “Most people don’t take hurricanes very seriously, because they’re normal,” he explained, but that attitude discourages many people who experience another storm — or even hear about the effects on others. . society — can trigger painful thoughts or cause great anxiety.

Evara, in response to the growing demand for mental health services, has hired many providers and made behavioral health available not only to the patients of the health center, but to the community. bigger. Staff are trained to provide mental health first aid.

These services are not hurricane-specific, Singleton said — they are part of a larger awareness of the growing mental health needs of the community. “It’s just the population that we control,” he said.

At TFHC, where mental health work and education are paramount, it seems ironic that October 10, the day Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida, is the Day of World Mental Health.

“We had activities planned for that day,” Dr. Green said.

Workers made up for lost time after Milton, offering “artificial hurricane days” and mental health justice. Examining symptoms of depression and anxiety, always a priority during medical appointments, became part of what Dr. Green called it a “high response.”

Even in quiet times, TFHC providers and staff focus on making mental health care more accessible. Caregivers, stationed at major hospitals, connect patients with providers. Education and community events are designed to raise visibility and eliminate stigma.

When it comes to mental health, “we talk a lot here,” said Dr. Green.

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Direct Relief provided more than $3 million in medical support to health centers responding to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and made an additional $2 million in funding to support recovery. The organization announced last week that 28 local partners, including Evara Health, Premier Community HealthCare, and Tampa Family Health Centers, will each receive an emergency grant of $25,000 to meet the growing need for health services.