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Letter to the Editor

"Integrity is the capacity to affirm the value of life in the face of death, to be reconciled with the finite limits of one's own life and the tragic limitations of the human condition, and to accept these realities without dispair. Integrity is the foundation upon which trust in relationships is originally formed, and upon which shattered trust may be restored. The interlocking of integrity and trust in caretaking relationships completes the cycle of generations and regenerates the sense of human community which trauma destroys."
[trauma and recovery: judith herman, m.d.]
Hi Gene,
Anne O. recommended this book and in reading this paragraph I found myself thinking of members of the CISM team - those of you who put your lives on the line and the behind-the-scene support staff. Awesome people.
I will be gone from Chico for the summer and plan to be back for the September meeting.
Blessings, Dorothy

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If we take care of ourselves in all ways, the Creator will do the rest.
Development comes from within.
[Native American saying]

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Marlene, Information for the team and Kit.
Rob Cone

------------ To: Cone, Rob
Subject: Chaplain stuff
Good Morning Chief Cone,
I didn't have a current CISM team email list with me, but the following is definately an item of interest for us as chaplains, and additionally for our roles on the CISM team (article listed below re: NYFire/Paramedic suicides connected w/ 911). Perhaps if you have time you could forward this to Kit.
Thanks, Mike B
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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 18:34:11 +0100 (BST)
From: Ilan Kelman
Subject: Ground Zero Recovery Argument
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_2042000/2042105.stm
Thursday, 13 June, 2002, 07:52 GMT 08:52 UK
Row erupts over Twin Towers search
By Jane Standley BBC correspondent in New York
A dispute is escalating between the owners of a skyscraper next to Ground Zero in New York, which may contain the remains of people who died there, and the families of the victims because the owners will not allow recovery workers inside.
The owners of the Bankers Trust building, Deutsche Bank, say they hope that environmental tests may be completed as early as Thursday, which could then eventually allow access to recovery workers.
The bank is not letting them in yet because it says it is concerned that the search could stir up harmful air pollutants.
It has been two weeks since the sombre ceremony which marked the official end of the clean-up operation at Ground Zero.
Since then, recovery workers have moved on to search surrounding damaged buildings and have found the remains of about a dozen victims.
The 40-storey Bankers Trust office block is one of the largest and closest buildings to the World Trade Center site.
A 24-floor gash was ripped into its facade when the Twin Towers collapsed. It has since been covered with a black shroud of mesh and a huge American flag.
Deutsche Bank says it is worried about asbestos, mould and other dangerous pollutants which could be dispersed into the air, and is concerned for the health of pedestrians who now travel along a temporary walkway at the front of the building on New York's Liberty Street.
But the families of some of the 3,000 people killed on 11 September are calling the bank's action shameful and claim it is thinking of its insurance claim before it is thinking of them.
Only a third of the families have any remains of their loved ones to bury - nearly 2,000 have nothing at all - and they are anxious for every bit of every building around Ground Zero to be searched as soon as possible.
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Message: 2
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 11:05:54 -0700
From: "Nancy J. Rigg"
Subject: suicide
I was just told that an EMS worker from New York who worked 9/11 committed suicide over the past week...
Does anyone have information about this?
Nancy
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Message: 3
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 14:22:56 -0400


Subject: NY EMS Paramedic Suicide
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nysuic132745344jun13.story
Counseling Sought for EMS
By Graham Rayman STAFF WRITER
June 13, 2002
The city's paramedics union called on the Fire Department yesterday to implement mandatory counseling for those who worked at Ground Zero.
The call came in the wake of two suicides by paramedics who worked extensively at Ground Zero, one in January and the other on Friday night.
Paramedic James Kay fatally shot himself on Jan. 8 in his Staten Island home. Daniel Stewart, 27, of Battalion 44 in Brooklyn, hanged himself Friday night in his Long Beach home.
EMS union officials believe that in both cases, the harrowing duty at Ground Zero was a contributing factor to the suicides.
"I'm not pressing the alarm bell for the union, but saying we need to deal with it," said Robert Ungar, spokesman for the 3,000-member Uniformed EMTs and Paramedics union.
"What's happening is that the current counseling program was not really prepared to deal with a tragedy the magnitude of the World Trade Center disaster," he said.
Ungar said the union has requested a meeting with Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta regarding a mandatory counseling program similar to one in the Police Department.
Thus far, the Fire Department has employed a voluntary counseling program. Each member of the department must fill out a detailed questionnaire and submit it to the department, but the choice of undergoing counseling is up to the individual.
"We don't think mailing out surveys and questionnaires is the way to go," Ungar said. "The members of our service should come in and talk to a professional." David Billig, a Fire Department spokesman, said Scoppetta would be happy to discuss the counseling issue with the union.
Peter Gorman, of another fire union, the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, said he backed the current approach. "We support the questionnaire," Gorman said. "The survey is confidential, and it was developed by mental health professionals."
Gorman said he is not aware of any suicides by active-duty firefighters who worked at Ground Zero, but a recently retired firefighter from Queens, who labored at Ground Zero, committed suicide earlier this year.
"The recent suicides that we have seen certainly indicates a long road for recovery, a recovery which only began when the site closed down," Gorman said.
Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.
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>Matthew Mauzy 919-347-0337
Technical Rescue Training Captain
(1114) -- mauzy@oemsrs.org
Orange EMS & Rescue Squad, Inc.
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Message: 4
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 13:28:13 -0500
From: "Garrison St.Clair"
Subject: Re: suicidev Nancy,
See below.
Gunslinger
Gunslinger's First Law of SAR:
"SAR is for the serious, not the well meaning."
To subscribe to the Incident Briefing Network list:
Send a blank e-mail to:
incident-briefing-network-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Please distribute the subscription information to all interested parties.
------------
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/50203.htm
'WTC' MEDIC HANGS HIMSELF
By ERIC LENKOWITZ and GILL SMITH
June 12, 2002 -- A despondent FDNY medical technician, overcome by the emotional trauma of sifting through body parts and debris for several months at Ground Zero, ended his ongoing bout with depression by taking his own life, The Post has learned. Daniel E. Stewart, 27, gave no warning before he hanged himself late Friday night in the basement of his Long Beach, L.I., home, but left behind a harrowing suicide note, sources said.
Stewart, who worked out of Battalion 44 in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, wrote about the heartache he suffered after hauling body after body from the ruins of the World Trade Center in the weeks following Sept. 11, sources said.
"That definitely took a toll," said paramedic Octavio Collado of Battalion 44.
Stewart, who was single, spent the first 12 days after Sept. 11 removing bodies, Collado said, and continued to toil through the wreckage on his off days well into January.
After that, Stewart went to the site no more than once a week, but the emotional damage was done. "He was psychologically distraught after seeing the devastation and the lives lost," Collado said. Voluntary counseling was made available on a 24-hour basis in the months following 9/11, and Stewart sought treatment on at least one occasion, Collado said, but he feels more should have been done.
"There should have been more counseling," he said. "They should have set up mandatory counseling." Collado said Stewart called him Friday evening, asking to get together and talk, and they arranged to meet on Sunday.
Just two hours later, Stewart took his own life.
"He didn't give me any indication," Collado said. "There weren't any real warning signs."
Craig Garwood, a paramedic and one of Stewart's close friends, said the suicide came as a "total shock."
"As far as we knew, Daniel was OK," Garwood said. "We didn't suspect anything was wrong." In his three years on the job, Stewart - a big hockey fan who liked surfing and fishing - developed a passion for his work, his colleagues said.

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What is it that makes one person more capable of handling a traumatic experience than another?

We all have an opinion about this. I personally feel it is ones spiritual foundation, their relationship with a higher power that they call by whatever name. This is not to say that a person is less traumatized by the experience, but that they have somewhere to place the experience inside themselves, a place that handles the macabre, the grotesque, and the unexplainable.
Training and practice is another tool along with family and friends. We all have different takes on trauma and it is my wish here to open a dialog with you by asking for feedback. Please jot down an opinion or two, email or snail mail it to me or hand it to me at a meeting. I'll place your thoughts here in the Stress Press. Besides that, I need some help to fill space sometimes. (Smile).
Thanks, Gene