Trauma endures beyond the saturation point
Exhaustion. Fear. Panic. Frustration. Powerlessness. Anger. Grief. We see these emotions etched in the faces of the more than 2,700 Quebecers who have been battling for days or weeks to save their homes from the rising flood waters.
We see people choke up as they describe their efforts on television. We see some shed tears taking stock of all that they’ve lost. We see tempers flare when police officers stand between a man with a truck full of sandbags and his desperate neighbours or authorities evacuate holdouts who have invested too much energy to give up their fight now.
But just because the water is beginning to recede doesn’t mean the intense emotions will dissipate, too. Disasters, whether natural or man-made, can have a lasting impact on mental health, experts say.
And both flood survivors and the health system need to be prepared to face the potential long-term consequences that follow major emergencies.
A crisis is a time of great uncertainty, said Julie Drolet, a professor in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary, who has studied the fallout from the 2013 Calgary floods and the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, particularly on youth.
“Initially, people experience disbelief, shock, fear and anxiety, disorientation, and have difficulty making decisions,” she said when asked to describe some of the common reactions to a disaster like the Quebec flood. “People are looking for accurate information to inform their next steps. It is a very stressful experience. People’s reactions vary based on their resilience, coping abilities and whether they have a sense of control over their situation.”
The stress of trying to save their houses and belongings or being evacuated is just the first stage, said Drolet. The return to sodden dwellings and ruined possessions can cause its own kind of trauma.
Life doesn’t just magically return to normal when the state of emergency ends. The recovery process can take an emotional toll. The stress of cleanup and the mounting financial worries present a new set of challenges to people who have already been pushed to the brink.
“Floods are un-insurable losses, and it can be very challenging for individuals and families to access disaster financial assistance for recovery,” Drolet said. “Later, some people may feel frustrated and anger with the recovery processes. Losses due to the flood can lead to grief, sadness and depression.”
Some may experience physical symptoms, like trouble sleeping, loss of appetite or an increase in habits like drinking and smoking. Children can be particularly affected, said Drolet, noting it’s important for parents to be honest with youngsters about what’s going on and encourage them to talk about their feelings, or express them through art.
The ripple effects of a disaster can last five to 10 years in some cases, said Drolet.
Suzanne King, a psychologist the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and a professor of psychiatry at McGill University, said it’s difficult to quantify the impact on mental health of an event like the current flood.
“All the research suggests there is about a 17 per cent increase in the risk mental health issues after disasters, both natural and man-made, so it’s fairly significant,” said King.
But the risk seems to vary with the intensity, duration and magnitude of the crisis, she said, as well as an individual’s personal experience of it. King’s expertise is the impact of disasters on expectant mothers and their unborn babies. She has examined the long-term effects of the 1998 Ice Storm on children whose mothers were pregnant during the emergency and found it left a lasting imprint on their development, including IQ, motor skills, anxiety levels and body weight.
“Even if their mothers were not upset, even if they didn’t have a lot of post-traumatic stress, we still saw effects in the children,” she said. “It becomes hardwired.”
King has also looked at the impact of floods in Iowa in 2008 and Australia in 2011 and her current research is focusing on babies whose mothers were pregnant when they fled the Fort McMurray inferno. She said the greater the threat to life and limb, the more danger present during the disaster, the greater the long-term risks.
The Quebec government has announced psychological aid for those struggling to cope with the floods.
Crisis workers have been deployed in each affected region at gathering points for those who have been evacuated.
But given how hard it is to access mental health services in normal times, and how costly, it is important that resources be available to flood survivors, not only now, but in the years ahead.
We’ve been through disasters before in Quebec. The tragedy in Lac-Mégantic, where a runaway oil train exploded, killing 47 people, rewrote the playbook on the mental health response that must accompany a crisis of that scale.
The loss of life in LacMégantic was a disaster without precedent in recent times and the trauma inflicted on the community was profound.
The floods have also turned lives upside down.
Those who are struggling to piece their worlds back together deserve all the support we can offer.