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A Mental Health Program for Ground Zero Rescue and Recovery Workers: Cases and Observations

2006; American Psychiatric Association; Volume: 57; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1176/appi.ps.57.9.1335

1557-9700

Craig L. Katz, R. W. Smith, Marsha Silverton, Ann Holmes, C. Bravo, Kristina Jones, Marta Kiliman, Norman López, Laurie Malkoff, Kathryn Marrone, A. Neuman, Tricia Stephens, Wendy Tavarez, Anne Yarowsky, Stephen M. Levin, Rob Herbert,

Disaster Response and Management

Clinical vignettes from the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Mental Health Monitoring and Treatment Program at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City are presented. The hospital-based program pairs mental health screenings with federally funded occupational medical screenings to identify persons with mental health problems related to their rescue and recovery roles. The program also provides on-site mental health treatment. The cases illustrate the diverse mental health needs of the rescue and recovery workers, some of whom initially sought treatment years after September 11, 2001. The cases show that in addition to symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, workers experienced survivor guilt, distressing memories of childhood trauma, shame associated with intense feelings, substance abuse relapse, psychosis, and problems with family relationships.