Factoring Mental Health Into Wildfire Emergency Plans, As Risk Of Fire Increases In California

Speaker 1: 00:00 It's been another bad wildfire season in California. And the trauma these fires inflict on families can linger for a lifetime. KPBS science and technology reporters Shalina Chote Lonnie explores why some psychologists say mental health ought to be part of our wildfire emergency plans. Speaker 2: 00:19 Megan queen and her husband Joe, were sleeping in their house in Rancho Bernardo. When smoke started to fill the sky, they woke to sirens Speaker 3: 00:27 the window and it just, there was like a wall of flames just coming down the Hill. And we kind of, I think one of us said, we gotta get outta here. Speaker 2: 00:39 Well, we woke our kids up and they were one in six or sign who's six, you can get up right away. And we had to like, you know, yell at them again and get up and we need to move. The Queen's arrived in Rancho Bernardo six months before October, 2007 when the witch Creek wildfire ripped through hundreds of thousands of acres of land and destroyed over 1200 homes. Flames were all around the family as they drove to get away. We were so traumatized we didn't, we got lost. We didn't know we were where we're going. The Queens made it to an evacuation center with your kids, but the next day they found out that their rented house had burned down. They've settled in a home close to their old neighborhood. But Megan says the fire still lives with them over a decade later, Speaker 3: 01:22 beating the drawers and the kitchen cooking and looking for something. And I'm like, where is it? Where is it? I'd be like, Oh, it burned in the fire. And then that would kind of um, kind of sadden, you know, kind of sadness. Speaker 2: 01:34 People cope with losing personal belongings, homes and pets differently. UC Los Angeles psychologists manual maiden Berg says, well, some recover quickly. Others experienced long lived trauma. Speaker 4: 01:46 They experienced symptoms as if it was happening again, disciplinary anxiety, not being able to fall asleep, changes in appetite, irritability, um, and feeling as if something terrible may happen at any point. Speaker 2: 02:01 Megan queen for example, says even the smell of smoke or news of hot and dry Santa Ana winds can put her on high alert. Made Annenberg says those already experiencing stress when a fire breaks out maybe more susceptible to these symptoms over time, and some people are genetically wired to develop posttraumatic stress, more easily Speaker 4: 02:20 be detected on all levels, behavioral level, emotional level, psychological level and physiological level, including brain. Speaker 2: 02:28 While posttraumatic stress is common enough. The American psychiatric association also estimates one in 11 us adults will be diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder in their lifetime. Through these experiences, our belief about ourselves and the world around us has been changed. Tina Casola is a licensed mental health counselor. The red cross calls upon during natural disasters. She says people go through a lot when disaster strikes and they need to talk about it. A lot of times it has to do with trust and that's not only trust of others, which is easy to see, but lot of times is trust in ourselves. Did I make the right decision? Should I have done something differently? That type of thinking might happen is displaced families sit in an evacuation center right after fleeing a fire. In our fire situations. There's a lot of, I call it limbo time where we don't have information, we don't know what's happening. Speaker 2: 03:16 And that can be very distressing on people. Cause Hola says red cross services can help alleviate some pain, but some people may need more help and they may not know they need it before it's too late. That's why Casola says residents should factor mental health into their emergency plans before disaster strikes along with material necessities like food and money. Who do I have to support me? What are the really important things to me? How do I reach out for help? And then even knowing how do I know when I need help, you know, how am I gonna read my body? How am I going to read my mind as fire season continues? One thing the solo recommends is that people know ahead of time who they could go to for support in case of an emergency. In fact, Megan and Joe Queens say they've taken advantage of counseling opportunities through the community so they can be prepared to handle stress and personal loss. Speaker 2: 04:06 If events like major wildfires happen. Again, it's easy to sit there and focus on, yeah, I lost my yearbook. Yeah, I love when you look at that, you start getting down and go, Oh, it does suck. I don't have this or that anymore. But you know, we have everybody, Megan and Joe also say they're prepared. They now keep a number of sentimental items like family photographs in a box by the door. Joining me is KPBS science and technology reporter Shalina Chot Lonnie Shalina, welcome. Hey, thanks for having me. The witch Creek fire was 12 years ago and still this family is feeling the psychological aftermath. Did you find out how long these traumas can continue to affect people? Yeah, so the tough part is that it entirely depends on the individual. As a manual maiden Berg, the psychologist from UCLA I spoke to in the story explained to me, it really depends on the person's history of trauma. Speaker 2: 05:02 So if the person has a history of experiencing traumatic events in their lifetime and they have not been able to sort of shake those traumatic events and they might have be more susceptible to, uh, experiencing symptoms of PTSD longer in their lifetime. So it can be weeks or months. But for some folks that are maybe maybe more genetically predisposed to having vulnerabilities, they might be experiencing these symptoms for years and years. I think that the smell of fire and Santa Ana conditions put all of us in Southern California on edge. What are some of the other triggers affecting people who've lost homes or, or their possessions to wildfire? It's a lot of different things for different people who have been experiencing these traumatic events. Um, and one point that may Annenberg made was that we all experienced trauma in some form or the other. When fires happen, they're scary, they're unpredictable. Speaker 2: 05:55 Um, but then the folks that actually experienced the loss of pets and personal belongings might have that weigh on them for a long time. So the Queen's told me, for example, that they just started putting fires outside. So in their fire pit outside, they may just start doing that, but they never put fire in their fireplace. While those may not seem like triggers, there are certainly long lasting impacts. And you know, ma, Megan queen was telling me that she also sometimes will reach for something and it's not there and realizes that it burned in the fire, which can also trigger those, um, those memories. So it can be anything that's sort of associated with the Trump traumatic event. Now, recently the emotional wounds of fighting wildfire have also been recognized. Isn't there a new emphasis on counseling services for firefighters and first responders? There is, and I should say there's a lot of data out there that shows that firefighting and folks that are first responders such as police officers do have a unfortunately high rate of death by suicide. Speaker 2: 06:59 Um, there's a lot of data points that point to that. To that point to that. Um, and in September, the San Diego County board of supervisors actually approved a mental health program for first responders that gives them quick and confidential access to mental health professionals. And what kinds of emotional help could these first responders and survivors need after surviving a wildfire? Is it talk therapy or some other kind of PTSD related therapy for folks that are experiencing posttraumatic stress distress? Um, what might be most helpful for them is talk therapy. Uh, being able to just go to their family and friends and having opportunities to vent and process the events that just happen. But if you're experiencing symptoms that lasts six months or longer, that's when clinically, uh, psychological professionals might diagnose you with PTSD, which is the type of disorder which means there's long lasting symptoms, in which case you might want to seek professional help. Speaker 2: 07:58 So an actual psychologist or therapist that, um, can work through some of the underlying factors behind why the stress continues to linger. Did the people you spoke with tell you that they've actually relived the fire many times in their memories and even in their dreams? Yeah, it, it, it was such an interesting opportunity to speak with the Queens. Um, Megan queen was telling me that she, in the first few weeks of experiencing the fire, because they actually ended up having to drive through free flames to get away from it, would just close her eyes and see the fire happening again and reliving that, you know, she remembers pretty vividly the details of having to like shake their kids away, get them ready to get out of bed. And, and Jo queen had an interesting story too, and this relates to the factors by which you might experience more longterm stress. Speaker 2: 08:50 He had lost his brother, um, when he was younger and had a lot of from his brother in the house when it burned down. And so he has one Jersey that his brother used to own that was saved in the fire. And he described it as a symbol of the two worst things to happen to me in my life for the rest of us. What are some of the ways that we can make mental health a part of our wildfire emergency plans? So, uh, I spoke to Tina Casola. She is a red cross psychologist, um, who gets called upon with these types of events. And so she's has that, it's really about being strategic. Think about the types of sentimental objects, um, memories, things that you just know that you will regret losing. Um, especially if you live in a high fire prone area and keep them ready to take with you before you leave. Speaker 2: 09:44 And also know right away who you might go to, uh, in case of, of a fire. And we're not just talking about food and shelter and these sorts of material necessities that you might need as a human being, but someone who you can talk to that, you know, will be able to kind of help you sort through those, um, the sort through the trauma. And so she says it's really just about preparing in those kinds of ways. Like, no, no. Who you can go to. I've been speaking with KPBS, uh, science and technology reporters. Shalina Chut Lani, thank you very much. Thank you. Speaker 5: 10:29 [inaudible].