Four-year-old Ruby had to evacuate her home in Pine Glenn with her parents and sister. As her parents dealt with the process of rebuilding their home, Ruby began to deal with anxiety and grief over losing everything she knew. Her parents turned to Play Therapy for help.
Tim and Trisha Grambow live in the Pine Glenn neighborhood in Columbia with their two daughters. The oldest, Ruby, was four, and their youngest, Ella Claire, was only two when the October floods forced them to evacuate. At first, they went to stay with friends. But it would be more than six weeks before the family settled into a temporary apartment, and six months before they would be able to move back home. Trisha says that initially Ruby and Ella Claire had fun staying with friends, but soon that began to change.
Jennifer Gerber at Post Trauma Resources in Columbia, SC shared her insights on how children cope with a traumatic event, like the October floods. She and her colleagues have not seen many cases of children who need counseling because of the October floods directly, although they did see some increase in anxiety in children (already being treated) who heard about the flood through family, friends, or even the news. Gerber says according to the research of Dr. Bruce Perry, only about one-third of children who experience or see a traumatic event will develop psychological symptoms. In addition, many families are still dealing with the more immediate needs of recovering from the flood, such as obtaining housing, clothing, and food, which may lead to a delay in processing the emotional impact of the flood.
Gerber says that some kids can work through things with a caring adult, but if a child has a lot of anxiety and many things amiss in their psychological state since a traumatic event happened, there is a possibility that there could be lasting effects if it’s not treated, especially if it was a very prolonged or intense event.
Signs to look for in children: high level of clinginess, nightmares and persistent problems with sleep, increased tantrums and inability to calm down, and post-trauma play, such as acting out the event.
Gerber says it is essential that parents get themselves to a calm state, regulate their own emotions, and take care of their own mental health so they can be stable. It’s also important to maintain routines with the family to help children feel safe and secure. This can be especially hard during and after a traumatic event, but it helps children to have clear rules and boundaries within the home.
Resources:
The Department of Mental Health: http://www.state.sc.us/dmh/services.htm
National Child Stress Trauma Network: http://www.nctsn.org/
SC Focus on Carolina United: http://etvradio.org/post/crisis-counselors-help-flood-survivors-listening-providing-advice