The Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services Mobilizes After September 11th
By Evelyn Blanck, The Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services
(February/March 2002)
No one could ever have been prepared for the tragedy of 9/11. However, from the very early hours, social workers were at the forefront in addressing the immediate and longer-term impact on individuals and families. Everyone has been affected by 9/11 and its aftermath. In this climate of uncertainty and vulnerability, social workers have been able to step in to help with the immediate concrete needs as well as longer-term emotional traumas. Our training in meeting the client where he or she is and in assessing the person-in-situation made us uniquely qualified to help people cope with the traumatic consequences of September 11.
Community focus
At the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services, one of the largest nonprofit, nonsectarian mental health and social service agencies in New York City, the work began almost immediately. Our focus was on bringing services into the community where people live and affiliate. We established drop-in centers in each of the five boroughs for any resident needing services. We were able to respond to requests from corporations whose employees and their families were directly affected by the tragedy, many of them suffering profound losses. The agency was present for these families in the initial hours of uncertainty following the attacks, and has been an ongoing presence as they have had to accept the fate of their loved ones and deal not only with their loss and anger, but also with the consequences to themselves and their children.
We have also answered requests for expert support and counseling from corporations not directly affected, but whose employees were deeply distressed by the tragedy.
The Met Council and FEGS joined forces with the Jewish Board to develop a one-stop service center of mental health services, employment services, and financial assistance at the 92nd Street Y. Private and public schools and preschool programs also received our attention. Through its mental health and consultation programs in these settings, the Jewish Board reached out to parents, teachers, and children to help address the needs of children and families in a sensitive and developmentally informed way. Other organizations that the agency served during this crisis included fire companies, city and state agencies, Jewish institutions, and other social service agencies.
Social workers were at the forefront in addressing |
There were also our public education efforts. We produced written materials for parents and teachers on helping their children cope with the trauma and for rabbis and Jewish educators on providing spiritual help to their constituents. Our staff appeared on radio call-in shows to answer questions from the public and was interviewed on television and radio, even from as far away as Sweden. Interviews with staff on trauma and bereavement also appeared in newspapers.
Expertise in Law, Bereavement and Trauma
What has made the agency able to help the city cope with the aftermath was not only its infrastructure of community-based programs but also its core expertise in loss and bereavement services and in trauma. The Jewish Board has, over the past five years, focused on the traumatic impact of violent events on people's lives. With the help of visiting international experts on trauma, the agency launched the Center for Trauma Program Innovation, which develops clinical, educational, and preventive programs for trauma-related incidents and disorders. The trauma team from the agency's Center trained 150 agency mental health professionals in trauma counseling immediately after 9/11 so they were prepared for work at the drop-in centers and other venues, including their own settings.
Long term effort
We know that the scars of the tragedy will be with us for a long time. For our long-term efforts, we are modifying our model short-term, group therapy program for children who have lost a parent or primary caregiver as well as our supplementary one for the surviving parent or caregiver, to deal with traumatic grief. With this alternative model we will be able to train our workers in traumatic grief counseling as well as respond to the requests for training from other human service organizations. We are also completing a training curriculum for mental health professionals on symptoms-related traumatic loss and treatment methodologies, based on different developmental stages. JBFCS is offering trauma treatment services to students, faculty, and staff at Stuyvesant High School, which was particularly affected by the 9/11 events because of its location close to the World Trade Center.
As time passes, needs change and evolve. Social workers will continue to play a pivotal role in providing a focused, coordinated, community based response to address the emerging needs. Social workers need to not only address the needs of others, but also to find ways to support each other in this difficult work.