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Several months after Hurricane Helene, survivors still need help coping with the trauma they endured. NPR's Katia Riddle went to Asheville, North Carolina, recently. She brings us this story about a practice that some frontline responders there are adopting in order to help prevent post-traumatic stress disorder.
KATIA RIDDLE, BYLINE: Part of the story of Asheville's recovery begins in another state and another time, nearly three decades before the storm hit. That's when Robin Gurwitch was a young psychiatrist in Oklahoma City. She found herself dealing with what is still the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history, the Oklahoma City bombing.
ROBIN GURWITCH: Certainly was my community, so there was that, and the need was just so great.
RIDDLE: One hundred and sixty-eight people died when a federal building was bombed, 19 of them children. Her clients were the ones who survived the devastation of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
GURWITCH: Being in the child care, the YMCA which was destroyed across the street, much less the one in the building, it was like, OK, I need to know more about how to best support and help.
RIDDLE: Her medical school training did not equip her for this kind of thing. She started reaching out to experts.
GURWITCH: When I was looking for people to help me understand what I needed to do, there were very few people in this country.
RIDDLE: Few people who knew how to deal with disasters and collective trauma. Gurwitch made it her life's work to change that. Now she is an expert on this subject at Duke University in North Carolina. When Helene hit in that state, Gurwitch took her expertise to Asheville, traveling there to teach frontline mental health responders - people like Cheryl Antoncic.
CHERYL ANTONCIC: It's like, you think that in order to support somebody, you have to be a mental health professional or a counselor or, you know, you don't have the confidence.
RIDDLE: Antoncic owns a restaurant in Asheville. She took a training from Robin Gurwitch in psychological first aid. It's designed for anyone to practice, like CPR for mental health. It's about meeting people's needs in the moment, really listening to them.
ANTONCIC: But just knowing, like, somebody just needs someone just to sit with them, you know, and offer them something to eat, offer them some water - it goes a long way.
RIDDLE: It can sound like common sense, but in the midst of disasters, often well-meaning people make mistakes. Presuming what others need can make things worse for people who are in shock. Antoncic says that's one big thing she learned.
ANTONCIC: Some people's tendency is to, like, reach out and try to hug someone when they're under distress, and actually, that can be something that you should ask first. Like, would it be OK for me to give you a hug, or would you like a hug right now?
RIDDLE: Psychological first aid gives responders a framework to call on in these moments of crisis and in the days and weeks afterwards. Antoncic has had plenty of opportunity to put this to use. That's because she's been feeding tens of thousands of survivors since Helene hit.
ANTONCIC: I believe that is our beef chili. Yes. And they'll serve that with a piece of corn bread on the side.
RIDDLE: She runs a restaurant called Bear's Smokehouse. On this day, she is standing under a tent in front of several huge paella pans. Each one holds hundreds of gallons of bean chili.
ANTONCIC: They run on propane, and they are big, big pots that - we're able to cook approximately 2,500 portions at a time out of each.
RIDDLE: After the storm, she and her staff worked with the charity World Central Kitchen to cook and distribute food from their restaurant. It became a hub. Helicopters helped make deliveries. Even the menu is informed by psychological first aid.
ANTONCIC: It was basically comfort food, what we would find comfort food - so a lot of chilies and stews, especially as the weather got colder.
RIDDLE: Antoncic is one of millions of people who are now trained in psychological first aid across the country thanks to researchers like Robin Gurwitch. Studies have shown the practice has promising benefits. Gurwitch says there's still so much to learn around the whole field of trauma and disasters.
GURWITCH: We'd learned from Oklahoma City. We'd learned from Katrina. We'd learned from 9/11. We'd learned from Sandy Hook that we could help - Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
RIDDLE: School shootings and terrorist attacks are horrible tragedies, but Gurwitch says they're also important to study. She still works with the people she met in the Oklahoma City bombing.
GURWITCH: And it's been 30 years. I never stopped working with them.
RIDDLE: In addition, Robin Gurwitch continues training people in psychological first aid to help with this disaster and all the future disasters. Katia Riddle, NPR News, Asheville, North Carolina.
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