KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, Louisiana |First Responder Stress Management Program

First Responder Stress Management Program

December 27, 2005
Reported by Laila Morcos

Everyone in South Louisiana has been affected by both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We've all felt stress and are coping on different levels. But for people like firefighters and police officers, that stress has reached new dimensions. Not only were they going through the hurricane itself, but they had to work through it and continue to do so now. But there's a stress management program that's available for first responders.

Michelle Trenton is a child counselor. Since returning from the Hurricane Rita evacuation she has been helping with counseling kids from the area. "It's stressful to hear those stories about what everyone has to go through," Trenton said.

Trish Walker is the Louisiana Spirit Program Manager, a FEMA funded program established through the Volunteers of America.  The program is used to help first responders deal with recovery stress.

"For most of us if we go back to September 1 and 2, that adrenaline rush hit, there was a lot to be done and we operated like that. However, the adrenaline dies down. We can't operate in that constant state of stress forever," Walker said. "You become very fatigued, we're disoriented, sleep disturbances, thoughts keep coming up in our minds that we don't know what to do with."

Through the program, first responders have access to long-term help to recover from stress reduction, and services cover the spectrum.

"We have ministers, we have PHd licensed professional counselors, we have psychologist, we have nutritionists, exercise physiologists, we have masseuses, and people who do healing touch," Walker said. And another thing, she says, "It's free compliments of the United States government and brought to you by VOA."

Walker says the hopes are to change thought paradigm as well. She says, "We come out of it stronger, clearer, in a new place, and we can look back and say, 'You know, those storms in 2005 took away everything that I held dear, but I came out the other side understanding myself in a whole new way."

For Trenton, who says she would have bottled that stress in, she thinks it's fantastic. 

"It kind of lets the stress go out and let me continue to do my job well and stay focused on helping everybody in the community." The program has helped make her life manageable and her ability to work sustainable.

Stress management services are for first responders. That means firefighters, police, counselors, emergency service personnel, medical responders, FEMA and Red Cross employees, and more.

In Lake Charles, call Wayne Oliver at 337-212-7323 or Glenn Morris at 337-212-7320. In Lafayette, call Rox Anne at 337-269-4688.