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Kelly Patterson of Paradise, Calif. had to evacuate during the devastating 2018 campfire season and is dealing with some of the stress by volunteering at a local animal shelter to help neighbors facing another wildfire.
“To say stress is high would be an understatement,” Patterson said. Her house It survived a fire in 2018, but her neighbors' homes did not. Now there is another fire – a park fire, One of the biggest in California history — and while it hasn't forced her to evacuate yet, she says she wakes up every hour to check.
“It's unconscious,” she said.
Sleep-deprived, Patterson recounts the list she's packed in her travel bag in case she has to run again — and she's not the only one.
“A lot of friends have the same anxiety from past campfire issues,” Patterson said.
Fire is not just a health and safety threat. Vulnerability It can be increased Risk Post-traumatic stress disorderAlcohol and drug use disorders and sleep problems, as well as chronic mental health problems years.
The climate crisis continues to fuel wildfires. Many more people now have to deal with not just one fire, but what seems like an annual one, and it's taking a toll on them. A sense of mental security.
Sonja Bigalke-Bannan, a licensed social worker who provides trauma therapy to trauma survivors Maui Wildfire said his clients had difficulty processing their emotions More recently Wildfires are dealing with damage from last year.
“We try to manage and process trauma in the present. When we're processing past trauma, we seek safety and stability, but when the body and brain are using the same patterns and messages to recognize that it's not okay in the present, it can be very difficult to try to find safety and continue trauma recovery. We have the same situations again,” Bigalke said. – Bann.
as a FridayThere are 94 large wildfires burning in various states, and 28 have evacuation orders. National Interoperable Fire Center. Fires are now burning in Oregon, California, Idaho, Washington, Utah, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, Nevada, Texas and Florida.
Matthew Plotkin, director of equity and advocacy for the United Way of Northern California, said he heard a series of survivors getting sick again from the current Park Fire.
“Unfortunately, we are currently seeing many families affected by recurring conditions,” he said.
Friends who lost everything in a campfire and built a house in another area of Butte County learned over the weekend that their new home was destroyed. The family he was helping Monday had a similar experience.
“They're back in the square again,” Plotkin said. “It definitely has a huge impact on mental health.”
A study of California residents Published on Friday About half of the 24,000 Californian researchers interviewed had been affected by climate events such as wildfires or floods, and 23 percent of those said their mental health had been affected. People in rural areas, like Plotkin, are more likely to report that a climate event has negatively affected their mental health than people who are white, college-educated, or female.
Even people like Plotkin who help others are not immune. When his wife called him in Washington last week to tell him about the park fire, he looked at everything he felt during the campfire when he had to leave.
“Actually, our whole county might have PTSD,” Plotkin said with a weak laugh.
When people experience post-traumatic stress disorder and it is not treated well, the problems can worsen.
“If people have had those experiences before, in the years after that, there's just going to be more triggers,” said Dr. Steven Sugden, who works at Utah's Huntsman Mental Health Institute and is on the American Psychiatric Association's Committee on Contingencies. Psychiatry.
People who lost their homes aren't the only ones who need help with wildfire-related mental health issues, Sugden said.
“We're all going to inherit the smog,” he said, just like last year when Canada turned New York's sky orange.
During this wildfire, he noticed many more people on the outskirts. “The whole country has been affected during the fires, and I think it's becoming more apparent,” Sugden said.
Fortunately, Plotkin says, as the wildfires continue to spread, mental health services are “more focused” on disaster recovery efforts than they were in 2018.
“I'm grateful for that, especially in our rural area,” Plotkin said.
The challenge, Plotkin said, is a national shortage of licensed providers, especially in rural areas like his. His organization is one of several trying to provide trauma-informed training for lay people, such as clergy and faithful community leaders, to help fill some of the gaps.
Having mental health professionals and trained volunteers was critical to the response to the New Mexico wildfires, said Nick Bucas, director of the behavioral health services division of the state's New Mexico Health Care Authority.
By the end of July, his team had more than 1,000 behavioral health contacts with residents dealing with wildfires. The outreach effort includes valuable assistance from the Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps, which employs certified peer support workers to help diagnose mental health issues in shelters in addition to talking with them and listening to their concerns.
“As you can imagine, when there's a wildfire, there's a lot of uncertainty about being evacuated from your home,” Bocas said.
It's important to bring help to evacuees where they are, because they can't always find it on their own. Trying to be proactive and let people know that we're there to support them in terms of behavioral health, but also what to expect, because there were a lot of unknowns and we had to make sure they were ready for that. ” said Bukas.
It was also important to develop mental health centers for firefighters and other first responders, said Bobby McKenzie. Medical Reserve Corps Program Manager with the New Mexico Department of Health Office of Health Emergency Management.
“I think a lot of times, they're neglected in their community, they see their own house on fire and they still have to go back there and continue to put out fires for the rest of the neighborhood,” McKenzie said. Constantly seeing and hearing the tragic stories of people like first responders “also takes a toll on a person's mental health and well-being,” she added.
To be most effective, mental health services can have a continuum, Bukas said. Unlike an ankle that heals in a few months, mental health care can't just happen in shelters, he says, “so you can go back to a place where you feel more comfortable about what you're going through.” he said.
Wildfires can have an indirect impact on mental health, through increased costs, insurance claims, rebuilding, loss of income and loss of friends and community as some people move away. “This is a long-term thing,” Bucas said.
Communities are important Respect each other Experts also said. It doesn't always have to be formal help that improves a person's mental well-being. Friday's study found that people directly affected by climate events were less likely to report negative mental health effects if they felt a sense of trust among their neighbors or expressed a willingness to help their neighbors themselves.
“Looking at our support networks to see how people are doing can really help people, whether it's related to all the fires or not,” Sugden said. We live in a very contentious time, and I think a lot of times, all that general noise makes things worse.
Individuals can also build their own resilience.
For example, an elderly wildfire survivor told Bigalke-Ban that his backpack was getting too heavy. She made him write what was inside so he would know exactly and physically how to lighten his burden. It is important to look at wildfire preparedness not from a “fear lens” but from a “scenario lens.”
As the anniversary of the Maui wildfires approaches next week, she's excited to help survivors share their concerns, but says the work continues. She has been working with clients to help them develop a calm space in their mind so that they can access it when they need to control their emotions.
With the number of wildfires rising across the country each year, Bigalke-Bann said, it's a practice most people need to improve.
“We have to be very aware and very prepared for this,” she said.
's Julia Vargas Jones contributed to this report.